How to Make a Balloon Crossbow

Hello! Today we are going to learn how to make a crossbow.

This is a tutorial that was requested by Courbin. You too can request a personalized tutorial by going to my blog.

So you inflate a balloon leaving a margin of a little less than the width of four fingers that is not inflated.

We divide the inflated part of the balloon into two equal parts, and we make a small bubble at this level.

Then we turn that little bubble into an pinch-twist. Then we make a second little bubble that we're going to turn into an pinch-twist as well, and we make sure to secure the two pinch-twists together.

We are then going to fold the first large segment of the balloon in half, which will serve as a guide because we then want to make a large bubble that is a little less than half of this large segment.

We then make another small bubble that we turn into an pinch-twist, and then, another large segment of the same length as the previous one.

We will now take the very first balloon segment back so that we can wedge the knot of the balloon at the end of the long bubble we just formed.

We now make a small bubble which we turn into a pinch-twist, followed by a second small bubble, and yes you guessed it...which we are also going to turn into a pinch-twist. There you go!

We gently pierce the remaining unnecessary balloon, and we tie a knot.

Here you go! At this point you should get this shape right there.

We are now going to take a second balloon of the same color as the first one and we are going to cut it into two unequal parts: the part with the mouth of the balloon will have to be a little longer.

We're going to inflate the shorter part, but before tying the knot, we'll have to check that its length fits between the two pairs of ear-bubbles of the first shape we sculpted.

Let some air out if necessary, check the size again and tie the knot.

We are now going to make an pinch-twist at this knot, which will have the advantage of increasing the air pressure in this segment of balloons. Indeed it is very important that this segment of balloon is very firm, but in addition, this pinch-twist will give us an attachment point to connect it to the first balloon.

To do this, we gently insert this pinch-twist next to the other pinch-twist we made between the two large bubbles of the first shape.

That's it. At this point you should get that shape now.

Now let's take the segment of the balloon that we cut earlier... We have to tie a knot at the end of it, then we'll squeeze all the air out of it, like this, and we tie another knot at the other end of the balloon to make sure the air can't get back in, which allows us to get a kind of ribbon.

Looking at it in profile, you should have one side very thin and the other side very wide. The shape of this elastic tape will allow us to put pressure on the surface of a balloon without making a groove or deforming the balloon in any way.

So we tie one end of this ribbon between the two pinch-twists, bring the very large balloon bubble close against the two pinch-twists, pull the ribbon from behind and reattach it to the two pinch-twists also.

We round off the shapes a bit and make sure the tape is laid flat so it doesn't create a groove on the surface of the balloon.

And at this point, you should now get that shape.

We are now going to take a balloon of another color to form the string of the crossbow and to do this we are going to use the same technique as before to squeeze out all the air from the balloon, and form a flat and elastic ribbon again. This ribbon shape will allow the arrows not to slip against the string.

You just have to make two three pass through the two pinch-twists to attach this rope to the crossbow, and we do the same thing on the other side.

To adjust the tension of the string you just have to change its length, the shorter the string the more tension there will be, and the longer the string the less there will be tension.

Here, the crossbow is finished, we will now make the arrow.

Take a balloon of any color and cut it in half. Inflate the balloon so it's firm and make sure it's straight.

Now let's get down to business!

First we'll stretch the string and lock it in this way, then we'll position the arrow along the guide of the crossbow.

We hold it in place with the thumb and index finger of the left hand, and with our right hand we move the rope to the back of the arrow.

If you are left-handed, you may need to adapt the instructions.

Aim your target and release the arrow!

Let's start again...

We start by blocking the string at the back of the crossbow guide, like this.

Then we position the arrow along the guide of the crossbow and we hold it with the thumb and index finger of one of your hands, with the other hand we move the string to position it at the 'back of the arrow.

We aim well at our target and then release the thumb and index finger.

It's as simple as that!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope to see you soon... for another lesson... with Môssieur Ballon... HELP!!!