So you say you’re throwing a party for your child and you need to know how to twist balloon animals? There’s a task that can quite possibly make your head spin. After all, you want to impress children and adults alike with your amazing balloon art skills. Why not begin with learning one animal at a time. Let’s start with the dog. Or course there are different techniques for making what amounts to the same animal, but the most basic of techniques is easy master with a little practice. You will be able to twist balloon animals in no time at all.

How to Twist Balloon Animals: A Dog

The Dog: Step by Step

Let’s assume you already know what kind of balloon to use and how to blow it up and go straight to the shaping.

1. When inflating the balloon, leave around four inches deflated at the end because twisting and squeezing the balloon as you shape the dog will inflate part of the uninflected part. The rest will be the dog’s tail.

2. You are going to fold the tied off end of the balloon over so that the balloon makes a kind of hook or cane shape. About an in and a half to two inches from the tied off section squeeze the balloon and twist.

3. Next, directly across from where you squeezed and twisted in step two, squeeze the balloon slightly to leave an indention. Twist the balloon in a circular motion where it was squeezed so that it holds, about twice. You have just created the dog’s ears and nose.

4. To make the front legs, fold the balloon again about an inch below the twist used to create the ears. Again, twist the balloon in a circular motion.

5. Now, move two inches away from the twist that created the front legs, fold the balloon and twist in a circular motion one more time.

Once you have mastered the art of making the basic dog, you can explore what happens when you make your own subtle variations. Perhaps you might accidentally figure out how to make a giraffe. You will get better with practice and you will soon be able to make more complicated animals.