Champion balloon artist Kristal Yee has returned home to Surrey with awards from a big convention in Chicago.

She was Top Twister in two categories (Agility, Artistic) at the at the start of March, and placed in six different competitions at the balloon convention, which drew 223 delegates from around the world.

含羞草研究社淭his is the first year that they added Top Twister in the agility category, because normally it含羞草研究社檚 just the artistic category, and I managed to win both of them,含羞草研究社� Yee told the Now-Leader.

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Since 2011 Yee has attended the Twist & Shout convention, where competition categories include balloon dress and costumes, stage performance and timed/agility showdowns.

A Fleetwood-area resident, Yee runs a face-painting and balloon-art business on , and posts her creations on .

含羞草研究社淚 do a lot of birthday parties, and I含羞草研究社檝e got a bunch of corporate things coming up, like companies doing family fun days and holiday events, things like that,含羞草研究社� Yee explained. 含羞草研究社淚含羞草研究社檝e got a golf course where I含羞草研究社檓 doing all of their brunches. During COVID I was doing a lot of balloon orders for people. Summer is always busy, and it含羞草研究社檚 getting busy in spring too. I含羞草研究社檓 never bored.含羞草研究社�

Six years ago, in 2018, . As a founding member of Canada含羞草研究社檚 Twisted Team, she earned awards at the World Balloon Convention in San Diego for a 含羞草研究社淪orcerer含羞草研究社檚 Serenade含羞草研究社� display, featuring likenesses of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The fashion-focused Surreyite made Minnie含羞草研究社檚 dress and Mickey含羞草研究社檚 robe.

In 2017 in China, she helped make a balloon 含羞草研究社渮oo含羞草研究社� that earned a Guinness World Records certificate as the largest such creation, 469,845 balloons in total.

to watch video of Yee in 2018.

Years earlier, after graduating from Enver Creek Secondary, Yee was an aspiring actor and part-time swim coach.

含羞草研究社淥ne day, I had no shows, and no coaching (jobs) either,含羞草研究社� Yee recalled in 2018, 含羞草研究社渁nd an actor colleague of mine asked if I wanted a job working with kids. The event company he was working for was short-staffed that weekend, so I went and did my first terrible face-painting, and my first one-balloon dog, hoping the thing wasn含羞草研究社檛 going to pop.含羞草研究社�

Yee quickly realized she could use more than one balloon to create something pretty magical.

含羞草研究社淚t didn含羞草研究社檛 have to be just a one-balloon dog or sword, you could make things with multiple balloons, and that just kind of opened up this world for me,含羞草研究社� she said. 含羞草研究社淎nd once I got into the convention world, not so long after that, it was like coming home, to find people who were just as crazy about what you love, as much as you are. I含羞草研究社檝e met some of my best friends through balloons.含羞草研究社�