July 1 - Stitch

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten."

~ Lilo & Stitch

They tell me everyone loves Stitch. 

It (he?) came into public favor in that sweet spot between childhood and parenthood for me and perhaps I just never built up a tolerance for this guy.

I caught part of an episode once - some alien mischief, constant maintenance, some kind of sugar-fueled exhausting storyline.  So now with the new movie coming out, there have been a number of Stitch designs people have shared in anticipation of requests. 

I had managed to avoid all of these until the recent Bling Bling Jam webinar, where Justin Reams dazzled us with his awesome new pump design then, WHAM! taught this quick Stitch design before we could look away. 

Ohana also means resistance is futile.   

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Other balloons by and inspired by Justin Reams:

July 4 - Bald Eagle

The panicking cries the roaring of guns
Are echoing all around the valley.
The mission complete they make to escape
Away from the Eagles Nest.

They dared to go where no one would try
They chose to fly where eagles dare.

~ Iron Maiden Where Eagles Dare

Happy 💥4th of July💥!  

This bald eagle is a creation by Justin Reams and is available for purchase at The Twister's Cookbook (link).  Justin has an interesting twisting style, he's a bit of a low talker so I would recommend you pay attention instead of twisting along the first time you watch because there are some good details.  He gets a great shape out of the balloons - and works beyond the realm of a simple bubble/pinch twist.

I tried to copy the platform that he built as a stand for the eagle.

Be safe out there tonight!

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Other designs by Justin:

Show all

December 18 - Grinch

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea!
"I know just what to do!" The Grinch laughed in his throat.
"I'll make a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat."

~ Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas

There are a couple Grinch designs out there, this head is from a download by Justin Reams available at Twister's Cookbook (link).  He provides a body, but there was a body I saw posted by Sam Cremeens recently that is top notch, so I tried to downsize that to marry it to the head.

The mouth on this guy is pretty terrible.  I've tried a number of times to make a successful evil Grinch grin on this and other balloons, and failed repeatedly.  This is actually the second head I made because I bumbled up the penwork so bad on the first. .... Le sigh ....

A couple years ago I went to play paintball on a "Big Game" day - Santa vs. Grinch.  On the website I saw that in previous years people dressed up in Santa hats and garb, so I grabbed a Grinch beanie and a bright green sweatshirt --- I was the only one in costume.   It made for one of the more fantastic days of paintball - big games are very mission oriented, and when you're all in paintball masks it's very anonymous on the field.   Not so this time -- "GRIIIINCH!" became our team rally cry.  Picture suppression fire as a green gorilla sprints from the bunker to gather up some ornaments or candy canes for our side to bring back to base.  When we broke for lunch, everyone on the other team wanted to come and introduce themselves to the person who made himself the biggest target of the day.  It was pretty fantastic.

Max!  Fetch ... my ... paintball marker.

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Other posts with Justin's designs: Show all

August 26 - Little Pony

Выйду ночью в поле с конем
Ночкой темной тихо пойдем
Мы пойдем с конем по полю вдвоем
Мы пойдем с конем по полю вдвоем

~ Конь (Horse) - (video link)

I've referenced the above video previously, but it inspires me to practice - and my choir begins next week, so I'm listening to this and Ljube's version as I type this.

Justin Reams released instructions for this pony on the Twisters Cookbook website.

One of the things I like about Justin's video is that while building almost every section he starts out with a fresh balloon.  It creates a decent amount of scrap, but oftentimes designs suffer from being overly efficient, and though I understand that it is better to use every scrap of a balloon to save on costs, until you are familiar enough with the design or very meticulous about measurements, you are oftentimes left with too little or too much when you're down to the last little bit.  Adding to that are the varying sizes of balloons - Betallic offering 360s vs. Qualatex's shorter 350s, it can be a mess. It's good to focus on the form first.

Brony's are everywhere. When I brought the black one to the office, my coworker said "oh is this from the episode when she went bad"?  I think I shamed him by saying I was going for the M:TG Nightmare Steed, or one of the horses of the apocalypse from the Red Dead Redemption expansion.  Nerdly in my own way. Not judging, teasing - there's a fine difference.  But I have to remember to ask him which Care Bear is his favorite, and whether or not Strawberry Shortcake is a dessert or berry best friend.

But then ... if he's a Brony, I guess that makes me a Burple.

A dashing pony	Power and toughness equal to the number of swamps you control.
This is a little pony?!?