December 14 - Snow Miser

I'm Mr. White Christmas
I'm Mr. Cool.
I'm Mr. Icicle
I'm Mr. 10 below
Friends call me Snow Miser
Whatever I touch
Turns to snow in my clutch!
I'm too much

~ The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Oh man this is being published late!

The story behind this one ...  Last year I copied John Justice's Mr. Heat Miser (link), and he challenged me to Mr. Snow Miser, posting his version.  His is truly "John Justice"d - technical precision, the inkwork is amazing and inspiring and he got a good face distortion, even having some icicles dripping from the nose.

Well it took a year for me to answer the challenge with my version.  I went for a more woven face and struggled with a number of different configurations for the jaw before settings on what is here.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by John Justice:

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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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December 12 - Rudolph

We may be different from the rest
Who decides the test
Of what is really best?
We're a couple of misfits
We're a couple of misfits
What's the matter with misfits
That's where we fit in!

~ Couple of Misfits Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Second here but the premiere model from Christopher Lyle's recent holiday balloon designs - A Very Yellow Christmas. This reindeer and the rest of the designs will be available on balloon-animals.com soon, but in the meanwhile you can contact Christopher directly if you wish to purchase it.

This is again very quickly built, and yet high impact - the flashing light for the nose really seemed to excite, sure it's just a light but people gasped like I was showing balloon magic.  There was also a bonus different "bit of magic" suggestion from Pookie in this video that would work great and spice up just about any holiday design.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Christopher Lyle:

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December 11 - Gingerbread Man

Gingy: Ok, ok...I'll tell you. Do you know the Muffin Man?
Farquad: The Muffin Man?
Gingy: The Muffin Man.
Farquad: Yes, I know the Muffin Man. Who lives on Drury Lane?
Gingy: Well...she's married to...the Muffin Man.
Farquad: The Muffin Man?
Gingy: The Muffin Man!
Farquad: She's married to the Muffin Man?

 ~ Shrek (2001)

Keeping on with a couple more designs, here is one from Christopher Lyle's latest balloon offering A Very Yellow Christmas.

This entire group of instructions are designed for quick line work and include the Lyle flair and playful irreverence we've come to love.  From classic Christmas designs like this gingerbread man and a reindeer - to a ... Christmas poo.

The balloon part of this is built very quickly - leaving most of your time for inkwork.  There is a lot of sharpie work on this balloon, but if you notice it's all simple designs and could be done really quickly with many corners you could cut.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Christopher Lyle:

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December 10 - Bopup Angry Pigs

Angry Birds is a very simple idea but its one of those games that I immediately appreciated when I first started playing, before wishing that I had been the one to come up with the idea first.

~ Shigeru Miyamoto

Couldn't think of a better fit for the purple pig in Bopup style than the pigs from Angry Birds.  (angry pigs?)

The beanbag shape is perfect for this balloon, and though I did make a couple with balloon pig snouts, it didn't add anything and was a little distracting.

Angry Birds is actually a very beanbag-hurling type game, and these could make great game pieces. Slightly under-inflated or over weighted birds with some larger pigs and you have to makings of a perfectly themed wobble-ball game.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 9 - Bopup Sloth

The point of sloths is to bring a sense of wonder, magic, and happiness to all other species. Did you know that every other animal's favorite animal is the sloth?

~ Ann Burton

Using the Bopup technique is interesting, but it's a tactile thing to see it wobble - something is lost when converting these to images.  After exploring a minimalist approach with so many Chibicoro, I don't think we really need to dive to deep into different ways to add rounds to this technique, so this will be one of the last.

Here are a couple attempts at a sloth.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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December 8 - Bopup Nightmare

♫ And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King,
   have grown so tired
   of the same old thing. ♫

~ Jack Skellington

Few balloons have been as fun to give out as these Bopups.  Especially if I've brought balloons to them before, there is almost a look of confusion.  "But normally there are more twists.."  It's why I leave on the nozzle so there is no confusion.

It's been challenging coming up with ideas on how to use this form, but the lesson learned here is the same as it has been for every balloon concept so far -- as much as it seems that we are making it tough on ourselves by defining limits, we're also making it easy on ourselves by giving a clear set of limits to work within.

So here are Bopup versions of Jack, the Pumpkin King and his girlfriend Sally.

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Other balloon designs by and inspired by Matt Falloon:

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