March 7 - Bunny

Little Nutbrown Hare

"Oh, that's far," said Big Nutbrown Hare.  

"That's very far."  Big Nutbrown Hare settled Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves.

Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, "I love you right up to the moon - and back."
   ~ Sam McBratney (Guess How Much I Love You)


I must have read this book over a hundred times, but I see that quote and all I want to do is get my big giant boys, and convince them to let me read it to them again.  I'm not sure I ever got through it withing my voice breaking.   I once tried to tell my co-workers about what a great book it was that they should read to their kids.  I think I got about 3 words past "Nutbrown Hare" before everything turned stupid.

These bunnies are a design by Rob Balchunas shown in Balloon Magic Magazine #78.    I love the Hello Kitty/chubby face look to these.  I actually didn't get the legs right until the mocha version, which was the last I built - you can see how that one is hunched over nicely by comparison.

If you're hoppy and you know it, give an snort!

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Other posts with Rob's designs:





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March 6 - Mermaids

"It's a dinglehopper.  Humans use these little babies to straighten their hair out.  See?  Just a little twirl here and a yank there and voila.  You've got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over."  - Scuttle

This mermaid was published in Balloon Magic magazine #80.  It was designed by Rob Balchunas to sit on a headband, I really like how he has you tie the tail through into the flower to get it to sit properly.

Probably the biggest take away from doing this a few times was realizing how small you really need to make the bubble that you split for her bathing suit.  It's easy to accidentally(?) make them too big.  Also, you don't want to make the top fit petals too big, both of the blondes look a little "hippy".

I tried to make seashells, ended up D-shells...
You said she was Finnish!

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Other posts with Rob's designs:





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March 5 - Eric's Frogs

"Frog said, 'I wrote
 'Dear Toad, I am glad that you are my best friend.
   Your best friend, Frog. ' "

"Oh," said Toad,
"that makes a very good letter."
Then Frog and Toad went out
onto the front porch
to wait for the mail.
They sat there
feeling happy together."

Yesterday I won the Bling Bling Jam contest.  This is the very first design from the new batch of PDFs that were the prize.  Eric Weinstein's PDF #5 is filled with line work quick designs and wearables.  I really don't make a lot of wearables, so I'm not sure how deep I'll get into this one (until I need to) - plus I'm excited to get to some of the other designs!

I've seen a number of people post pictures of this frog, so I thought I would have a quick go at it. Cute and easy - and easily built upon if you have time.  The lilypad and cattails are from Twistina's frog design from Balloon magic magazine, which (perhaps spoiler alert) I was working on before I won these PDFs.

	Time is fun when you're having flies!
I'm a ham-phibian - get it?

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Other posts with Eric's designs:





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March 4 - Killer Whale

HelllllllloooooooooooooOoooOOoooo!
"Hi!" (translated from Orca-ish)

"Those who become trainers because they love the animals usually end up leaving for exactly the same reason" ~ Anonymous ex-Sea World employee (Blackfish)

This killer whale is a headband design that Pieter van Engen shared with us in Balloon Magic #82.  The whale is very quickly done, it takes longest making the cool 8 petal flower fountain flair.  You can see how it can be used for other things (a spout of fire?) in the purple pig version.

Now that I look at the images, this could probably use some eyeballs, or at least some artwork.  Oh whale ...

The evolved form of the porka whale can shoot fire from its spout

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Other posts with Pieter's designs:


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March 3 - Sophisticat

"If cats looked like frogs we’d realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That’s what people remember." ~ Terry Pratchett The Sophisticat is a design by Twistina - from Twistina's Five Minute Balloon Delights Volume 4 (link).  Such a unique cat - pretty fun to build and so much personality!  Well, cat personality - aloof staring, like a teen upon hearing your best dad joke.    Maybe just my teens ... :)

These pictures are all unedited for color, just cropped for size.  It's interesting how varied the background color is, I suppose I should figure out how to have a more reliable picture...

My favorite color is purrrrr-ple!

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Other posts with Twistina designs:


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March 2 - Angry Bird

"We built 51 games before getting to Angry Birds [...] My team knows how to build a hit and also how not to build a hit.  This is important." ~ Peter Vesterbacka This is another Nao Osaka design, quick and easy.  Additional connection points for the eyebrows and the feathers, but a pretty straightforward weave. I'm trying out a new way to show similar posts at the bottom of the page ... I think I might have to go label things better so I can use this everywhere.

I'm not the guy, I swear!

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Other posts with Nao Osaka designs:


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March 1 - Princess Lily

"Take up your china doll it's only fractured - and just a little nervous from the fall" ~ Garcia/Hunter

This design is by Lily Tan and was featured in Balloon Magic magazine #80 along with a link to a video on how to create her life-sized doll as well. This form uses a geo for the skirt and is a quick build given the simple body. Although this design is fairly simple, there are a lot of good elements to pay attention to. The shoes give a nice flat surface to position things on, or you could use them as a point to tie the model onto things, the hair bangs create an interesting frame for the face and could be used for many styles.

Smooch!

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Other posts with Lily's designs:




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