This little Duck Centerpiece is easy to make and lots of fun to look at. It takes less than a half hour to make but looks like it takes much longer.

You can use him for a duck themed birthday party or make a bunch of them for a baby shower.

Duck Centerpiece Supplies

2 Balloons yellow
1 8x11 piece of orange construction paper OR 1 sheet of Orange felt
Scissors
Masking tape
Coins
Ribbon
2 Wiggle eyes
Blue Shredded paper (optional)

Lets Assemble a Duck Centerpiece:

Inflate one of the balloons to regular size and tie off. This is going to be the main body of the duck centerpiece.
Inflate second balloon to about 4". Before tieing the balloon, check it next to the large one to see if it needs more or less air.
Once you have the correct size on the second balloon, tie the two of them together. This is the hardest part of the whole project!

On the orange construction paper draw a large triangular shape like a piece of candy corn. You want rounded corners rather than sharp points. When I drew mine, I took the large balloon sat it onto the paper and then made a mark about 3" from the edge of the balloon to make the front line for the feet. You can also make the mark for the back end of the feet while holding the balloon there. Make sure the feet don't hang out from the back of the duck body.

On the spare area of the paper you can draw the beak. (its just two triangle shapes butted together)Draw a straight line about two inches long to mark the center of the beak. Now find the center of that line and make marks parallel to the center line at around 3" from the center line. Connect the ends of the two inch line to the dot to form the triangles. You should now have a diamond shape. Cut out all the pieces. When cutting out the feet, you can round the feet more while cutting as shown by the dotted line on the feet in the picture.

This is where the duck centerpiece really starts to take shape! Add the feet to the duck. Using masking tape loops on the bottom of the large balloon push balloon onto the feet near the small rounded side. It may take up to 4 loops of tape to get the duck to sit correctly. At this time you can also apply small tape loops to the head to get it to sit onto the body correctly. Just take a small loop of tape and place near the neck (balloon stems) and press down. Dont be concerned if the tape is showing, you can cover it with ribbon in a few minutes. Tape a few coins to the bottom of the feet near the back end of the duck so that it stands up straight. Mine took about four quarters!

If you are using felt for the beak, just fold the beak and glue to the duck. If you are using the construction paper beak it will take a few extra steps to fit the beak to the balloon. Take the beak and instead of folding it in half on the halfway line, hold the beak at the edge of the table and make the fold about 1/16" from the center line. Do this to both sides so that you have a small flat area at the base of the beak (like the binding on a book). Now that you have the binding look to it, you will need to make small cuts along that area to make the beak bend to fit the round shape of the balloon. You can use scissors and just make slight cuts about every 1/16 of an inch. Once you have the beak so that it can conform to the shape of the balloon tape it in place or use glue. Dont use hot glue or the balloon could burst!Now the duck centerpiece is almost done and really starting to take shape.

Add the two wiggle eyes by attaching tape loops to the back of the eyes and pressing them into place. How is your duck centerpiece looking? Has it been fun so far? Just a few finishing touches and you will have created a masterpiece.
You could also draw eyes onto the duck with black marker but the wiggle eyes give a little more of a 3D effect.

Add some ribbon around the neck of the duck to hide any of the tape that is showing.
At the base of the duck you can add shredded blue tissue paper to look like water. If you don't have blue tissue paper you can spray paint both sides of some printer paper and run it through a paper shredder (after its dried of course).

This is a fun project and really much easier to make than the instructions sound.
Make a bunch of duck centerpieces using smaller balloons and have them be place markers for a baby shower.
Put a birthday hat onto the duck if you are having a birthday party.

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