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.

鈥淭his is the first year that they added Top Twister in the agility category, because normally it鈥檚 just the artistic category, and I managed to win both of them,鈥� 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 .

鈥淚 do a lot of birthday parties, and I鈥檝e got a bunch of corporate things coming up, like companies doing family fun days and holiday events, things like that,鈥� Yee explained. 鈥淚鈥檝e got a golf course where I鈥檓 doing all of their brunches. During COVID I was doing a lot of balloon orders for people. Summer is always busy, and it鈥檚 getting busy in spring too. I鈥檓 never bored.鈥�

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

In 2017 in China, she helped make a balloon 鈥渮oo鈥� 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.

鈥淥ne day, I had no shows, and no coaching (jobs) either,鈥� Yee recalled in 2018, 鈥渁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鈥檛 going to pop.鈥�

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

鈥淚t didn鈥檛 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,鈥� she said. 鈥淎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鈥檝e met some of my best friends through balloons.鈥�