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Some of the earlier postings of this character have "see-through" ruby red balloons (anybody remember having to do ALL of your red balloons in ONLY ruby red and having about 1/2 of them pop when doing that)? Wow, have times changed! Thanks to newer colors from the balloon manufacturers, we have many more choices to make our various sculptures, and I am a BIG fan of the Standard Red from Qualatex.
What is also very interesting and fun to see is the way various artists have taken techniques and ideas from previous posts and incorporated them into newer designs. With that in mind I bring you my version of "The Cute Little Red Monster That Children and Mothers Love." A big "THANK YOU!" and shout out to Southern California's own, Malinda Campbell. Malinda shared the body design with me (and also gave me permission to share it with you!) that I now use for my version of the "Little Red Monster That Children and Mothers Love". If you don't want to go through all of these steps, you can always use a Stillman "Hitch-hiker" body style. But I really like the way that the "Little Red Monster That Children and Mothers Love" looks with this body type. The instructions I give are for a 260 small, cute version. But there is no reason you couldn't do this in 350's for a larger decor piece or just a larger version. Just upsize everything and be prepared to use more balloons. Also if you change the color to a blue shade, remove the orange nose, offset the eyes, and give him a balloon cookie, another figure just might emerge. Enjoy!
One more "THANK YOU!" to Ken (Super-K) Shute, for experimenting with and editing the instructions.
2. Twist off a small soft loop twist, a pinch twist, a small bubble (about 3 finger-long) and another small pinch twist on both balloons.
(pinch twist at 2a and 2b)
3. Make a 4 finger-long bubble after the pinch twist in each of the red balloons. Join the bubbles that you just twisted to the pinch twist in the other balloon. (It should like the letter "H", when done)
two 4-finger-long bubbles joined at the pinch twists at 3a and 3b
4. Twist another 4-finger-long bubble in each balloon and cross connect them, to form a letter "A" shape.
2 2-finger-long bubbles twist together at 4a
5. Make two 2-finger-long bubbles in the balloon with least amount of air in it. (There is usually 1 balloon longer than the other, at least for me!) Join the 2 bubbles together to form a split loop.
2 2-finger-long bubbles joined back on each other
6. Tuck (roll through) the two 2-finger-long bubbles between the triangle that forms the top of the "A" so that 1 bubble sticks out the front and 1 bubble sticks out the back of the body.
7. Twist two small soft pinch twists in the other balloon. This creates the neck attachment point.
8. You have two choices now. You can cut and tie off the excess balloon from each one, and use a full 260 red for the arms and hands, or use what's left over to make the arms and hands. I usually use the left over balloon to form the limbs. Twist off whatever size arms you'd like and make a pinch twist and small, soft loop twist for the hands. The body is finished. (Cute, huh?).
9. The head is basically a "Lootle" head (Thanks Robbie!) without ears. Inflate the 3rd (or 4th) red balloon and leave a small tail (about 3"). (No photo necessary for this part!)
10. Make two 5-finger-size SOFT bubbles and lock twist them back on themselves. Do this again. So you have four 5-finger-sized bubbles.
11. Join the four bubbles together to form a 4 bubble roll through. Twist them around each other several times so they don't come apart.
The mass of balloon on the left is 4 bubbles rolled around each other several times.
12. Make one more 5-finger-size SOFT bubble and roll it through the other four bubbles. You should have enough left over to form a neck.
The roll is 5 bubbles full; the left over piece is for the neck.
13. Make a small bubble, and a pinch twist. Twist off one more small bubble, deflate and tie off the balloon leaving a tail to attach the neck to the body.
14. Tuck the small bubble and the pinch twist between two of the large bubbles. The small bubble with the tail should be centered, with a small neck sticking out of the bottom.
15. Inflate the 5" white round a bit and attach to the head by pulling the nozzle through the head and wrapping it around the pinch twist that you tucked into the head. (You may have to un-tuck the neck, to attach the white round and then re-tuck it again).
white round's nozzle through head and wrapped around pinch twist
16. Split the white round in half to create 2 eyes. To keep the eyes separated, we need to wrap a round balloon between them. We could use any color, but let's randomly use an orange one for this sculpture!
17. Attach the head to the body by wrapping the excess tail from the neck balloon around the pinch twists on the body. Wrap several times to really keep the head in place. Inflate the black balloon and just tuck it into the "mouth" area or run the nozzle end through the head and attach to the pinch twist that is tucked up into the head. Add artwork and a crayon, if you'd like using the balloon scrap! Ta Dah!
