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.

乌鸦传媒淭his is the first year that they added Top Twister in the agility category, because normally it乌鸦传媒檚 just the artistic category, and I managed to win both of them,乌鸦传媒� 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 .

乌鸦传媒淚 do a lot of birthday parties, and I乌鸦传媒檝e got a bunch of corporate things coming up, like companies doing family fun days and holiday events, things like that,乌鸦传媒� Yee explained. 乌鸦传媒淚乌鸦传媒檝e got a golf course where I乌鸦传媒檓 doing all of their brunches. During COVID I was doing a lot of balloon orders for people. Summer is always busy, and it乌鸦传媒檚 getting busy in spring too. I乌鸦传媒檓 never bored.乌鸦传媒�

Six years ago, in 2018, . As a founding member of Canada乌鸦传媒檚 Twisted Team, she earned awards at the World Balloon Convention in San Diego for a 乌鸦传媒淪orcerer乌鸦传媒檚 Serenade乌鸦传媒� display, featuring likenesses of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The fashion-focused Surreyite made Minnie乌鸦传媒檚 dress and Mickey乌鸦传媒檚 robe.

In 2017 in China, she helped make a balloon 乌鸦传媒渮oo乌鸦传媒� 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.

乌鸦传媒淥ne day, I had no shows, and no coaching (jobs) either,乌鸦传媒� Yee recalled in 2018, 乌鸦传媒渁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乌鸦传媒檛 going to pop.乌鸦传媒�

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

乌鸦传媒淚t didn乌鸦传媒檛 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,乌鸦传媒� she said. 乌鸦传媒淎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乌鸦传媒檝e met some of my best friends through balloons.乌鸦传媒�