May 13 - Frog

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."

~ Mark Twain

Sam Cremeens is the best balloon artist in the world, my opinion is supported by the facts.  In what I consider the premiere balloon convention this year, he took the top twister award.

Now this quote is not about eating frogs, Mr. Twain was referring to procrastination.  I was fortunate enough to spend some time getting to know Sam and I can easily say he is the type of hard-worker who is constantly challenging himself to improve, and the designs he shows you can be sure have been rigorously used, tested, reworked, analyzed, improved and then presented to you.   

Creativity is not a magical force - it's nose-to-grindstone trial-and-error hard work. #inspiredbysam
(Miss you, buddy.)

This was one of his finely tuned designs he shared at the Q Corner Convention.




(view other frogs)

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Other Sam Cremeens and inspired-by balloons:

March 1 - Goblin

"Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!” he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say ‘out of the frying-pan into the fire’ in the same sort of uncomfortable situations."

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

If you think of a balloon like making a video game, the first iteration would be the prototype, proof of concept.  Does this work?  Does it make sense?  Is it fun to play?

Playing around with the pig form from yesterday.  Lackluster pose.  Proof of concept.  Kinda fun though.

Making a video game - you would be left with two options, make the engine even better (more detailed, more .. stable?), or use that engine to tell a story.

December 13 - Sam's Tree

“Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”

~ Chad Sugg

Check out the latest Patreon reward for supporters of the Balloon Blast Video Show!

This was the November 2017 bonus, taught by Sam Cremeens.

I was playing around with the idea of a flocked tree, but with blue accents it had sort of a Jewish look to it.  So then I built a Kwanzaa tree.  For the record, I do realize the absurdity of doing this - but we have Hanukkah ornaments on our Christmas tree.  Better to celebrate everything in a weird way...

I used a white light in a yellow balloon for the standard tree, a white in the middle of the blue star on the Hanukkah tree, and a rainbow flasher inside a yellow for Kwanzaa tree.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Sam Cremeens:

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January 23 - Sam's Plane

Man must rise above the Earth — to the top of the atmosphere and beyond — for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

~ Socrates

Today is the day I'm heading back home after visiting with my mom for an early birthday celebration - so it's appropriate to schedule a plane for this day.

This design was one Sam Cremeens posted in the balloon forums fairly recently. I've tried to recreate it based on those images, once again in haste as I'm about to leave for my weekend trip in only a couple hours! Sam is great at creating functional designs, they are not so complex and thereby things you will build over and over again.

One of the things I really like about Sam's version was the artwork he used for the windows - I don't think I captured it very well, but my actual plane is leaving in just a couple hours and I need to go.

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January 2 - Sam's Horse

I'll find those stairs. I'll whip their butt, too. Those stairs won't know which way they're going... take drastic steps, kick it to the curb. Don't mess wit' me. I'm the Stair Master. I've mastered the stairs. I wish I had a step right here, right now, I'd step all over it...

~ Donkey Shrek

These horse are based on some images Sam Cremeens posted recently, which in turn are the result of his toying around with an image Buster Balloon posted over the holiday.  Sam spotted something awesome in the design, realizing it was more of a balloon concept.

Again, concept designs are my favorite things ever -- they spark a hundred other ideas.   When I first started twisting balloons, I was worried that I would be asked for something I didn't know how to build.  But with a handful of concept designs, you can create just about anything.

I really should make a list of all the design concepts ..

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December 7 - Blast Reindeer

Santa knows Physics: Of all colors, Red Light penetrates fog best. That's why Benny the Blue-nosed reindeer never got the gig.

~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

This reindeer is the other Christmas design on the Sam Cremeens download Link Faces (link).

This is another fantastic concept video, I can easily see how I would adapt this face structure to a number of things.  You are left to create the body yourself, this time I used John Justice's Adventure pups for that.

I really need to spend a little more time practicing my artwork.  Sam shows clearly how he draws his face, but something about drawing on a created balloon makes my hand shake or hold the pen at an awkward angle.  On the black-nosed reindeer, this created some very thick lines as I kept trying to straighten out the wobble (hence the lack of pictures of the two of them together).  So much of this is the confidence of knowing what you're doing, a slow line is a shaky line.

"You look more like snow deer..." .... "You realize this is why we won't let you play our games ... "

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December 4 - Blast Santa

Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollity; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Sam Cremeens released these faces in his Balloon Blast - Link Faces concept video on balloon-animals.com last year (link).

Sam is one of my favorite instructors, you can tell that he's used these faces many many times before attempting teaching them.  He builds everything with ease and it is described so well as he does so that I bet I could follow along with an audio only tutorial.

The bodies were fairly freeform building, but I am fairly pleased with how Santa turned out, and I think an elf in short shorts is deliciously silly.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to meeeeeee...

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Other posts with Sam's designs:


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November 14 - Episode 360

"It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth.

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space...."

~ Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
   Opening Crawl

Many Bothans died to bring the rebels this information, Sam Cremeens has embraced the dark side and become Darth Awesomus.

Sam is not only a brilliant balloon artist, but also a Star Wars super-fan - his workout routines at the gym typically include a lightsaber routine, and he's gone so far as to craft his own saber.  Did I say super-fan?  I meant super-duper-fan, the kind that would buy an intentionally tacky sweater because it has a Vader helmet on it, and take a selfie wearing it with his R2D2 phone.

These images are all built from designs found in Episode 360 - The Latex Strikes Back, his second installment of Star Wars themed balloons available at balloon-animals.com (link).  (The one exception is Darth's lightsaber which is from Episode 260.)

Sam does a fantastic job describing efficiently how to twist these using simple measurement techniques, so they are all easily learned.  More than that, this is a concept video - even though the designs are rooted in Star Wars - both the masks and the weapons could easily be used to create a multitude of simple to complex interpretations.  These are all my first attempts, I would have remade the stormtrooper mask but it was getting late and I had to get the bantha burgers on the grill.

Sith Sthparing	Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me But I won't feel blue, Like I always do 'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you
Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Pork Side.

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Other posts with Sam's designs:


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October 19 - Werewolf

“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary. ”

~ George Bailey It's a Wonderful Life

Sam Cremeens created this werewolf last year for the Patreon's of the Balloon Blast Show (link).

Someone a while back posted something to the effect of "Is all you get a bonus video for being a Patreon?" ... The reason you are a Patreon is much more than the extra goodies you can get. The Balloon Blast show has been an inspirational and free resource for so many balloon artists for years, being a Patreon supporter allows them to purchase better equipment to make better content. It encourages them to keep carrying on with more shows and demonstrates the value you have found. As recipients of Patreon support, Sam an Scott have been more than generous - even skipping charges on some episodes when they felt it shouldn't be applied.

But if you want to ignore that and reduce it down to what you get.  Fine - yes, that's all you get (plus a thanks in the credits of each show). But even that, however, is well worth it. These videos are high quality unique and creative instructions that will never be released elsewhere all for less than you probably spent on that sandwich you ended up throwing half of away because they put mayonnaise on it.

This is the second time I've built this werewolf (the first immediately after receiving the video). It was given to the activity desk at my gym to replace the scarecrow I gave them early last week. There is a tendency when you bring random-acts-of-balloons somewhere to keep them on display far too long, so now I'm in a vicious cycle of updating to avoid anything becoming too wilted and an eyesore for me!

Bark at the moon	Handsome guy ... being held by me.
When you suggested mooning someone ...

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July 8 - Bull

Gil: They call me Cowboy Gil, as in guil-ty. I saw Cowboy Dan. I didn't like the look on his face. It was like this...
[smiles goofily]
Gil: ... so I killed him. I blew a hole in him this big. Actually it was about this big. You know, when I think about it, that hole was about THIS BIG! And his guts were spilled out all over the floor. As I was walkin' away, I slip around on his guts. A couple of other people came by and started slippin' on his guts too. After I blow a hole in somebody and slip around on their guts... afterwards, I always like to make balloon animals. That's mighty courteous of you. Here we go!
[holds up jumbled of twisted balloons]
Gil: Your lower intestines.
~ Parenthood

The Patreon video for the Balloon Blast show is here - no bull!  It's incrediBULL!  It's memoraBULL!  It's unbelieveaBULL!  It's adoraBULL!

Sam Cremeens is an extremely efficient twister and makes everything look so easy despite the complexities - this face distortion took a few attempts and re-watches to get close - but in re-watching without my balloon noise, Sam was telling me exactly what I was doing wrong (make sure to tie this here, keep this soft, trim out knot bulk, etc)

This bull is actually taught as a rideaBULL structure - but I put it on a body to display here (it's a convertaBULL).  I really like the front of face/nose area - the distortion between the nose and lips give a great curve, but I do wonder how well a pressure-held section like that will keep in shape, especially during bronco riding!  Thankfully something I don't have to deal with or worry over.

I decided not to make any Rocky Mountain Oysters...

It's a bull (not Constantinople)	We bulls wobble, but we don't fall down
mah node itches!

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Other posts with Sam's designs:


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May 15 - Drum

Life is about rhythm.  We vibrate, our hearts our pumping blood, we are a rhythm machine.  That's what we are.
~ Mickey Hart

The second of the bonus video for the Balloon Blast Show Rubber Band is a drum.

The drum starts out the same way as the banjo. On my second build I once again accidentally made the drum portion a little bigger, but this time I used a 350 outer ring and it looks much better filling that area and gives a nice tight fit so that both sides of the drum look good.

This drum is designed to be the standing/marching band style, and Sam includes details on how attach the shoulders straps, but I figured they would just get in the way of the pictures.

The only real "upgrade" to the second version is that it's a cleaner second build using gold instead of yellow and I tried a different stick style.

	Upgrade!
I gotta have more cowbell!

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May 12 - Banjo

"When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!"  ~ Mark Twain

If you haven't figured it out by now, you probably are just looking at the pretty pictures - in which case you're not even reading this so the point is moot.  But.  I am a HUGE fan of the Balloon Blast Show.

What was once a weekly show gave way to a monthly digest has now given way to a bi-monthly installment.  (Crowd:  awwwwwwww)   But they've gathered a good Patreon following  (Crowd:  *cheer!*) so they invest a lot of time in these bonus videos. This one was a 4-parter (Crowd: *wild cheering!*) starting with a banjo (Crowd: *abrupt awkward silence*) 

... the first instrument of the Balloon Blast Show Rubber Band!  (Crowd: *canned laughter*)

(cue intro music)

Sam has a great attention to detail and, as always, gives very clear instructions both visually and descriptively.  This one was pretty easy and I think looks great.  I made the drum a little bit big on my first attempt, so I had to compensate with an extra bit (mocha neck).  Also ... *gimpy bubble sigh*.

	Finger Pickin' Good!

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March 10 - Leprechaun

Oh Danny boy, the pipes the pipes are calling,  From glen to glen and on the mountainside.  The summer's gone and all the leaves are falling,  'Tis you must go, 'tis you must go and I must bide ! But come you back, when summer's in the meadow,  Or when the valley's hush and white with snow !  Then I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow,  Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so ! And if you come, when all the flowers are dying  And I am dead, as dead I well may be  You'll come and find the place where I am lying  And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me. And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me  And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be  If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me  I simply sleep in peace until you come to me. Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so!

It's getting dangerously close to St. Patrick's Day so I realized I should get busy on some holiday themed balloons!

Here is a Leprechaun inspired by an image Sam Cremeens posted.  I have a folder dedicated to inspirational images from Sam, so when I saw he used his Blast Faces technique to make this guy I figured I would give it a go.  I made his instrument a little too big, so it looks more like a standing bass (which I suppose is cool), and there are a few other things I could do better next time - but overall not bad.

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Other posts with Sam's designs:	Other St. Patrick's Day designs:
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