Do you love animals, but don’t have the time or money to take care of them? Well, now there’s a way to show your love for your furry friends without ever having to leave the comfort of your home! With this easy-to-follow tutorial, you’ll be able to make dog and cat balloon animals in no time at all. All you need are a few supplies, and you’ll be able to show your loved ones just how much you care! So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
My girls are having a Dog and Cat themed birthday party and I’m busy making decorations this week! Here’s one I’ve finished so far…Dog and Cat Balloons! I’ve made them in several different colors, and I’ll be hanging them on the backs of each chair. Here’s how I made them!
Dog and Cat Balloon Animals
Supplies
- Template or Cricut Cut Files for dog and cat faces (see below)
- Cardstock in different colors (I used white, pink, black, brown, gray, yellow, and a little bit of peach and hot pink)
- Cricut Explore/Cricut Design Space/12-inch regular cutting mat if not using template
- Xyron 3-inch Sticker Maker and 1.5-inch Create-A-Sticker
- Xyron Glue Stick
- Clear packing tape
- Balloons in different colors (I used white, silver, black, gold (which turned out yellow), pink, and orange (which also turned out yellow!)).
- Balloon pump (optional)
- Curling ribbon
- 1/2 inch grosgrain or satin ribbon
- Scissors
- 1-inch round and oval paper punch (optional)
Directions
- Download a template PDF of the Dog and Cat face shapes. Print and cut them out on white cardstock, then trace them onto cardstock in your desired colors. Note: The nose is simply a 1-inch circle and the eyes are ovals. If you have similarly-sized paper punches, use those instead of tracing and cutting. And, you can also try neatly drawing the mouth with a thick black pen. If it looks good, go for it.
- Download a template PDF of the Dog and Cat face shapes. Print and cut them out on white cardstock, then trace them onto cardstock in your desired colors. Note: The nose is simply a 1-inch circle and the eyes are ovals. If you have similarly-sized paper punches, use those instead of tracing and cutting. And, you can also try neatly drawing the mouth with a thick black pen. If it looks good, go for it.
- I’ve also created free Cricut Explore cut files for the cat and dog head face pieces. Just save them to your computer.Dog Head and Cat head
- Mouth for both dog and cat
- Eyes (**see note in next paragraph)
- In Cricut Design Space, upload all of the images. All of your images will load black, but change the colors as shown so that the eyes/ears/whiskers/mouth are all cut out on black paper. Then make the nose a different color, and the two heads different colors. This way, your machine will prompt you to switch paper. Then, drag your images to the right size. Start with the heads…they should be about 6 inches tall. Then you can size the rest of the parts accordingly. To make duplicates of the shapes, just click copy and paste. To make a mirror image of the ear, click the edit tab on the right and you’ll find the arrow to flip it. **NOTE: For the eyes and nose, there are two other options besides using my images above: 1. Do a search among the free images for a circle and oval in Cricut Design Space, or 2. If you have an oval punch and a circle punch that are about 1 inch or so, you can use those instead.
- After you’ve cut out all your pieces, adhere the small pieces to the large pieces. I used my Xyron 3-inch (for the ears) and 1.5-inch machines (for the small pieces). For the whiskers/nose background piece, we’re not adding adhesive to the whiskers, just the nose, so use a glue stick or glue dot for that.
- Adhere the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth to the dog piece.
- Apply glue stick to just the nose part of the whisker/nose piece and adhere that to the cat face. Then, adhere the nose piece on top of the nose part of the whisker piece. Also apply the mouth and eyes. Then, you can fold the whiskers slightly so they stick out.
- All done with the faces!
- Now, prep the balloons. I used a pump to blow mine up. Then, place it in a bowl upside down, otherwise it will float all over the room as you work! Tie some curly ribbon to the balloon. This will be how you tie it to the back of your chair. Make the tails long enough so they can reach around your chair.
- I then used packing tape to adhere the head to the balloon. Packing tape would provide enough stiffness to keep the head as upright as possible. It helped to use a longer piece of tape than I have shown here, so that it continues down along the back of the balloon about another inch or so.
- Last touch: tie a ribbon!
- I made 6 dogs and 6 cats, as we’re expecting 12 guests including the girls. I will probably make some extra, and will probably offer them to the kiddos to take home. Feel free to add more embellishments, such as spots, patches, and tabby markings.
- The yellow looking balloons with the brown heads are actually gold! I could not find dark brown balloons. And there are gray balloons as well as pink and white (due to the lighting, all of them look white). Hoping to take some (better) pics of all of our decor together. Will update this post when I do! Ok, back to party planning!
Making dog and cat balloon animals can be a fun and easy project for the whole family. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the entire process, from choosing the right balloon Animal, to how to make the Balloon Animal come alive. So be sure to bookmark this page, and come back every time you want to make a new Dog or Cat Balloon Animal!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are balloon animals called?
Twisters, balloon benders, and balloon artists are people who make twisted balloon animals and other sculptures. Twisters frequently perform at restaurants, birthday parties, fairs, and other formal and informal gatherings.
What was the first balloon animal?
The first balloon animals are thought to have been created by the Aztecs using cat faeces. But these balloon creatures weren’t just for amusement; Aztec gods offered them as sacrifices. The bowels were cleaned out, turned inside out, and then sewn intact using a special vegetable thread by the Aztecs.
Why is the Balloon Dog Famous?
This is perhaps the most famous sculpture from the series. Balloon Dog (Orange) broke the records seven years ago when it was sold for $52 million. As a result, it went into the record books by being the most expensive artwork by a living artist.
