Balloon train

Materials: a balloon; an air pump; a permanent marker and scissors.

Buy balloons on Amazon (paid link): 

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 Buy an air pump on Amazon (paid link): 

https://amzn.to/3mW1DyJ

We are going to make a train. Inflate a balloon leaving a six—inch flat tail (Pic 1).

The first bubble we twist to help make the tulip twist. Twist the first soft a half—inch bubble (Pic 2).

Force the first bubble about one inch inside of the balloon. Then twist the second one—inch bubble (Pic 3). This step is marked with a red arrow between points A and B on the scheme.

Twist the third two—inch bubble (Pic 4). The first bubble stays inside of the third bubble.

Twist the fourth soft two—inch bubble (Pic 5).

Lock both ends of the fourth bubble in one lock twist (Pic 6). This step is marked with arrows between point C and D on the scheme. It’s the front of the train.

The next two bubbles you twist to make the front wheels. Twist the fifth one—inch bubble (Pic 7).

Twist the sixth one—inch bubble (Pic 8).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last two (the fifth and the sixth) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 9 and 10). This step is marked with arrows between points D and E on the scheme.

The next four bubbles you twist to make the middle wheels. Twist the seventh one—inch bubble (Pic 11).

Twist the eighth one—inch bubble (Pic 12).

Twist the ninth one—inch bubble (Pic 13).

Twist the tenth one—inch bubble (Pic 14).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last four (the seventh through the tenth) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 15 through 17). This step is marked with arrows between points E and G on the scheme.

Twist the eleventh three—inch bubble (Pic 18).

Lock the free end (the point H on the scheme) of the eleventh bubble between the eighth and the ninth bubbles (Pic 19 through 21). You have to roll the four bubbles that you made for the wheels around the eleventh bubble as to make the bird body twist/fold. This step is marked with arrows between points H and F on the scheme.

Twist the twelfth five—inch bubble (Pic 22).

Lock both ends of the twelfth bubble in one lock twist (Pic 23 and 24). This step is marked with arrows between points I and H on the scheme. It’s the cabin.

The next two bubbles you twist to make the rear wheels. Twist the thirteenth one—inch bubble (Pic 25).

Twist the fourteenth one—inch bubble (Pic 26).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last two (the thirteenth and the fourteenth) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 27 through 29). This step is marked with arrows between points I and J on the scheme. The rest of the balloon is the fifteenth bubble.

You can keep the fifteenth bubble as a handle or cut it off and tie off the end. Use the permanent marker to draw the wheels and the face (Pic 30 through 32). Congratulations, you have made the train (Thomas).

You can use a white or clear balloon to twist a cloud of steam. The train would be more recognizable and better looking with steam (Pic 33).

To make the cloud you have to inflate a white balloon leaving a six—inch flat tail. Tie end of the white and the blue balloons in the knot (Pic 34).

Now you can proceed with twisting all the blue bubbles as described above to make the train (Pic 35 and 36).

Once you made the train you can twist number of white soft a half—inch bubbles and lock them together to shape the cloud (Pic 37 through 39). Have fun and happy twisting :)