This months competition design is the Easter Rabbit.

The original design was shown at the Manchester Care & Share day by Daniel McCullough.
This is my version of Daniel's design, thanks to Daniel for letting me use the design for this months competition.

Daniel made the design with a 12" quick link and added the tail onto the design.
I have used a 6" quick link and used the link part of the balloon as the tail.
There is also a slight variation on the head construction.

BUT the design inspiration is all from Daniel, this is Daniels original picture for the design.

And then a few more today, still deciding what one to make into the model of the month.

Inflate the link of the quick link, just put a small amount of air in the 6" quick link,
then push the air into the link section, you need approx. 3 finger length with a half of a finger tip.

Put a knot between the link and the balloon.

Before inflating the quick link you need to make a raisin,
this is a scrap of balloon with one or two knots tied into the scrap.
There is a thread here with it explained, raisin-twist-t1096.html

Inflate the 6" quick link with four strokes of the pump, I used the old Qualatex purple pump.
If you use the new green pump you will need to let a little air out.

The raisin is on the left, this goes inside the balloon,
the scrap to tie the raisin to the outside of the balloon is on the right.

The raisin inside the balloon needs to be approx. 4 fingers away from the knot.
You do have to feel for the raisin inside the balloon and sometimes holding this up to the light helps.
Once you have hold of the raisin through the balloon you use the 160 scrap to tie the quick link around the raisin.
For the first few goes it might help to have someone else help you tie
the raisin in but you will get the hang of this after a few goes.
Please do not give up, if it's a new technique for you.

Make the 2 finger bubble into a pinch twist for the lower section of the mouth.

Make a 5 finger bubble followed by a 2 finger pinch twist.

Then another 5 finger bubble back to the mouth section.

The raisin twist is wrapped into the back of the 2 finger pinch twist at the back of the head.

Then the know of the quick link is wrapped around the mouth section tightly.
I then like to take the knot and stretch it really tight around the 2 finger pinch
twist at the back of the head to make the head section more rounded looking.

You then need a 3 finger bubble for the eyes and a 1 finger bubble for the nose of the rabbit.

Twist these into two pinch twists so the tail sits upwards.

You then have to plait the balloon.
I like to use the longer balloon as the centre starting point.

Plait all the way to the end and twist all three balloon together.
Leave approx. a 1 finger bubble in the balloon with no knot.
The knotted balloon I deflate this and tie back up.

I have tied the top section of the basket just for taking the picture.

You twist the pinch twists for the tail of the rabbit into this section.

With a slight adjustment it should look a little like the last picture.