Balloon Twisting and Face Paint for Popular Boy Birthday Themes

June 26, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

In the last blog post I discussed how face paint and balloon art can be incorporated into popular birthday themes for girls! To see that blog post click right here:

Incorporating Balloon Art and Face Paint Into Popular Birthday Themes: Girls Edition

This week I’m going to discuss how the same can be done for popular boy themes. According to party city the most popular boy birthday themes are:

Superheroes:

Hire a face painter to come and face paint the children’s favorite superhero masks onto their face. Complete this with buying some bulk cheap capes and the children can entertain themselves by playing superhero.
Balloon twisting designs for superheroes isn’t as obvious as face painting designs. It is possible to make small superheroes balloon figurines, however in my experience children would prefer superhero weapons or just simple swords. Swords are one of the easiest balloon twists to make (no surprise there). Kids love them though! I personally love the Caption America balloon defense weapon (and I’m sure my grandson would agree with me). It’s requires a lot of balloon twisting skill, so remember this kind of twist will require more time.
I love how many characters there are for superheroes. With that comes many different options for superhero themes foods! The marshmallow and fruit Caption America armor will be sure to please both children and adults. Plus, it’s super easy to make! The Thor cupcakes are also easy to make and use some of the same materials. However, if you plan on serving birthday cake you may not want to invest time in making cupcakes. The hulk rice crisp treats are also super easy to make! Just add some green die to the recipe, and buy some black dye at the nearest Michael’s Craft Store for the frosting. All these foods allow less time cooking and more time with your birthday child.

Cars:

Believe it or not cars face paint is actually less common than one would think. The face paint design below is one of my favorites. It’s so creative and it’s more than painted car on a cheek. The face paint design incorporates the whole face!
Now the picture below looks like it would take a lot to recreate. However, if you build this one scene you don’t need to go all out with the rest of the decorations. Don’t be worried that a lot has to be done to make this scene, just think about how much more one would have to do if you didn’t do it. Take a cheap black tablecloth and paint the white stripes. Buy a few balloons and cones, and BAM decorations done.
The car balloon art is awesome. I taught myself how to balloon twist this after seeing the photo. Just remind the party guests that balloons can’t be rough housed with. No car accidents for these balloons.

Toy Story:

I’m in love with this party theme! The face painting designs for Toy Story are quite time-consuming and detailed. Without so much meticulous brushstrokes, the designs wouldn’t look good. They would look more like the birthday child did it. With some face painting designs, like this one, there is no in-between between good and bad.
Creative food that plays with the theme of Toy Story is great. Getting boxes of pizza and making a sign saying “Pizza Planet” is a super easy and low-effort way to feed the guests and up the décor. Another food to serve could be croissant-wrapped hot dogs and calling them “slinky dogs” to reference the popular character. Whatever food you chose to serve, if you choose to feed the guests, make sure the items don’t require the children to eat down. There is too much excitement happening!
Toy story alien balloon art are some pretty awesome examples of the talent it takes to balloon twist. It’s so obvious who the balloons were created to be. Making ionic balloon animals can really showcase talent.

For more party ideas I have created some Pinterest board with even more party ideas for a bunch of themes: https://www.pinterest.com/FacepaintingCT/

Which Pinterest board is your favorite?

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Incorporating Balloon Art and Face Paint Into Popular Birthday Themes: Girls Edition

June 17, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Face paint and balloon art are great ways to keep children entertained during a birthday party, and it helps to bring together a theme! The great aspect of having a popular theme is that finding supplies only requires heading to the local party store, rather than searching online or doing it yourself. Party City has a list of the most popular girl and boy birthday party themes. For this post I’ll be focusing on popular girl themes, and next week I’ll post about the boys themes. However, there are some popular themed party supplies that can’t be bought at Party City; balloon twisters and face painters.

Making Sure Your Summer Party Isn’t a Bummer

June 10, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Having a summer birthday opens up a couple new options for party ideas that can only be done during this time of year, including some festive balloon twisting and face paint designs. The two biggest decisions for birthday party planners in the summer months are whether the party will be held outdoors or indoors, and if the party is going to be relaxed or lively. Some easy party ideas for any gender and any age during the summer are:

All Parties Can Have Face Paint and Balloon Twisting!

Hire a face painter and balloon twister! This is a definite way of making sure the children will be entertained. Face painting is suitable for all ages and designs can be matured for older kids. Everyone also loves a good balloon sword! This option is super easy for parents because the artists do all the setup and takedown. All the party holders need to do is setup a table with two chairs. How easy!

Outdoors

Very Active Party:

Not everyone has the luxury of a having a pool. However, don’t fret if you want to cool party guests off but don’t have a man-made body of water and concrete sitting in your background. Water balloons are a major pain to inflate (and take about five minutes to go through). Instead, invest in some water guns! Have bins filled with water throughout the yard so that kids (and let’s be real, adults) can refill the guns. If you already have water guns this can be a total party hit with no cost to you. If your collection of water guns hasn’t begun yet, dollar stores and Wal-Mart are a great place to look. Just be sure that every party child has the option to play, so make sure that the number of guns will equal the number of children at the party. It’s also a super good way to water your lawn (:
- Just because this party idea involves water doesn’t mean that you can’t have face paint! Noodle Doodle offers waterproof face paint! With FDA-approved ingredients, the paint comes of with soap or makeup remover instead of water.

More Laid-Back Party Idea:

Create an outside theater in your own backyard. Hang a sheet up in the backyard, rent a projector, and stream the birthday child’s favorite film. Litter the backyard with old blankets and pillows! I would recommend this idea for parties for older kids (9+) that are more likely to be able to sit through an entire film. This would also be a great time to do face paint, because rather than waiting in a line the kids can come one at a time during the movie. A super awesome addition to this idea would be to make a slideshow of the birthday girl or boy’s photos to play before the movie. There is no harm traveling down through memory lane.
For kids under 9, bring a carnival to town! Not literally, but you can create carnival games for the children to enjoy. The problem with this idea is that needs a lot of work beforehand to complete. The games once completed can be used for many birthday parties to come though!

A good majority of summer birthday parties are held outside. However, the weather sometimes gets upset that it wasn’t invited to your party and rains down on the special day. I would recommend a more laid-back tone to indoor parties because having multiple loud kids inside isn’t ideal.

Indoors

Now, if you planned for an outdoor movie theater and the weather decides to move the party inside creating the same idea indoors is easy! Although it would now be easier to just play the movie on the TV, I would still recommend using the sheet and projector anyways! That extra step will be sure to wow the party.
The easiest way to create a summer feel to an indoor party is to make a beach theme! This where some really fun summer balloon twisting and face painting can come in. Let our face painters create a tropic paradise on your little’s one face. Regarding summer inflatable objects, balloon animals are so much better than beach balls!

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Frozen Summer Party Ideas

June 3, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

During the summer we often get many requests for a princess themed summer birthday party and especially requests for a Frozen birthday party are at an all time high. Two years following Disney’s release of Frozen, the movie still reigns high in the minds every child. It has most likely left your summer birthday girl or boy wishing upon a star for a Frozen themed party in the middle of the summer. Don’t be worried because even in the middle of summer it’s still easy to create a wintery Arendelle wonderland party complete with face painters and balloon twisters. Some ideas to create the best Frozen summer birthday party are:

Before the Party:

Hire an Olaf for any summer birthday party and ask him to come in his favorite summer outfit. Complete in his movie famous sunglasses and/or top hat, Olaf will be a happy snowman!
Hire Elsa and Anna for the party. The queen and princess will happily arrive to any Frozen summer birthday party and explain that in Arendelle it’s still quite cold and that’s why they’re in winter clothes. We work closely with Invite A Princess so any residents of Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts should contact them to book a professional Elsa and Anna.
Book a balloon twister or face painter for some fun birthday party entertainment. Frozen themed balloon crowns and swords are an easy party pleaser and go great with wintery face paint. To the right is an example of our Frozen summer birthday party sword. We would be honored to face paint of balloon twist for any residents of CT, MA, or RI.
As an expert on balloon twisting and face painting there are some easy tips to making the event run as smoothly as possible.
- Artists will arrive early (roughly 15 minutes) in order to setup their station. All that is needed for a balloon twister or face painter is a small table with two chairs. Clean-up is super easy and will done by the face painting or balloon twisting artist. All that is required by you is to put up and take away the table and chairs!
- We recognize that inviting artists you don’t know into your house isn’t always easy. Feel free to call ahead of time and ask about the entertainer scheduled for your event. Sometimes schedules get moved around so we can’t be guaranteed any single balloon twister or face painting artist to your event. Tips and food can be offered to any balloon twister or face painter, but are not required.

A combination of Olaf, princesses, balloon art, and children with their faces painted would make an awesome picture that would capture the fun for years to come.

Party Setup:

Hang twinkling Christmas lights around the birthday party room or outside. Tying in the wintery feel with a summer birthday party, the Christmas lights will also be very lovely if the party continues into the twilight.
Even if your local party store doesn’t have any Olaf summer birthday items, check online! There are paper plates and various party supplies with Olaf on the beach with sunglasses.

These awesome Disney summer birthday items can be bought on Amazon and reminds everyone that Frozen has both summer and winter themes.

If you have a sandbox and don’t wish to buy any Frozen birthday party products, make a poster saying “Olaf’s Dunes” with the famous picture of Olaf lying in the sand. Face painted snowflake children would be very cute playing around in the sand and heat.
Draw snowflakes in chalk before the party with the birthday princess or prince on the sidewalk! Besides being a fun way to get the little one involved in the birthday event planning, it’s a great way to entertain them while you set-up the rest!

Party Food:

Serve snow cones during the party as an easy way to beat the heat label the table as “Magic Snow During the Summer”.
During the long summer months it’s important to hydrate (especially if the party guests are running around enjoying the nice weather) so label the water cooler as “Melted Snowman”. If it’s a clear container, you can even add a carrot in the water for extra effect.
Buy a small, medium, and large pizza and make a snowman out of pizza! Add eyes and buttons easily to the delicious snowman with either pepperoni or olives.

During the party:

One easy activity for a summer Frozen birthday party would print out some coloring pages with the children’s favorite characters to color throughout the party. Mix in both summer and winter coloring pages as an easy way to create a Frozen summer birthday party both a summer and winter feel.

Let the children create paper snowflakes that the adults can hang around the party room when the project is finished.
Children that aren’t interested in arts and crafts can always play with their balloon twisted swords and crowns. Frozen maybe recreated in your own background by the little ones.

Creating a fun frozen summer birthday party is easy so don’t fret. The combination of winter decorations, Frozen characters, balloon twisters, and face paint will ensure a summer Frozen birthday party will be a unique party the birthday girl or boy will never forget! If you find yourself needing more inspiration for a Frozen birthday party just play this until the day of the party.

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4th of July: Book Today! (Nancy is now booking face painting and balloon twisting out a month)

June 1, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Good news for me, less-exciting news for everyone else! I am now booking all of my “busy months” parties about a month out. That means even though today is June 1, I’m booked all of June and starting to fill up July! It feels great!!!! 🙂

If you want face painting or balloon twisting for your 4th of July party, please email me very very soon! Any July spots are first-come-first-serve and need a check to be mailed to me to be held.

See everyone very soon!

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Volunteer face painters in CT

April 2, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Hi families! I get asked a lot about whether I can volunteer at events or fundraiser.

I choose 1 event a year to volunteer at. I think working with my community is a great way to serve and have met some great families out of it!

The reason I cannot volunteer for more than that is because of how expensive it gets! With gas, supplies, not being able to book paying gigs… I may be retired, but the income is still very important to my family!

I would love to give your 501C3, church, school organization, or neighborhood group a discount, but for right now I cannot work for free at events.

Good luck with your fundraisers!!!!

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“Highlight of our party” – face painting and glitter tattoo review from Molly’s birthday in Weston

April 1, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Client reviews are always the highlights of my month! If you want to send anything my way, please do! Otherwise, I hope everyone will enjoy this very kind note:

“Hello Nancy! You did face painting and glitter tattoos at our daughter’s birthday last fall, and I just wanted to say you were the highlight of our party! Molly’s younger brother Sam is turning 2 in a few weeks, so we wanted to bring you back! Maybe for balloon twisting and glitter tattoos?

I hope you’ll be coming to all of our birthday parties from now on! Talk to you soon!”

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Nancy’s Favorite Face Paints

March 30, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

I often get asked about the face paint I use, it’s safety, and the brand. Here’s a little bit about my favorite face paint brand: Snazaroo!

Here is their safety FAQ off their website:

Are Snazaroo face paints suitable for sensitive skin?
All Snazaroo face paints are specially formulated to be friendly to the most delicate skin and are fragrance-free. All our face paints have been reviewed by an independent professor of dermatology and professional toxicologists. However, we recommend that before you start, you try a small test area on the inside of the elbow.
Are Snazaroo face paints non-toxic?
All Snazaroo face paints are manufactured using only ingredients fully compliant with EU & FDA toy and cosmetic regulations, and are not dangerous and non-toxic.

Are Snazaroo face paints suitable for Vegans or for Vegetarians?
Some of our Snazaroo face paints contain lanolin, an animal-derived ingredient and as such, our products cannot be categorised as vegan/vegetarian. However, the glyceryl stearate in our face paints does not contain any animal ingredients and there are no other ingredients (other than lanolin) which are derived from animals in our face paints.

Are Snazaroo face paints safe for pregnant women?
Snazaroo face paints are safe for pregnant women, as all our cosmetics conform to the cosmetics directive.

Are Snazaroo face paints tested on Animals?
Snazaroo products are never tested on animals.

Are Snazaroo face paints gluten free or nuts free?
Snazaroo products do not contain any gluten or nuts.

What to use to remove Snazaroo face paints?
All Snazaroo products are easy to remove. Simply wash off with warm soapy water or use gentle face wipes.

How long can I keep Snazaroo face paints?
At Snazaroo we recommend that you use your face paints within 18 months of opening.

Do you produce or sell rainbow cakes?
Here at Snazaroo we do not manufacture rainbow cakes as producing these require cutting the paints by hand and touching them. All our products are manufactured in a cosmetic environment and sealed with the cosmetic film which does not get touched by human hand until you, the consumer, peel it back to use the product for the first time.

What is the minimum age for children to be painted?

Snazaroo face paints are safe for all ages, but we recommend face painting for children 3 years old and over. If painting on younger children we recommend a small motif on their cheek, hands or arms.

Does Snazaroo face paint wash out of clothes/fabric?

Snazaroo face paints are water-based and will wash out of most fabrics. However, please remember that due to the high pigment content some colours may stain.

How long will the face paint stay on my face/body?

Until you wash it off under normal circumstances. Always remove paint before going to bed.

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Safe face painting in CT

March 17, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

I love these face painting tips from the FacePaintingTips.com website. Here’s their article on safety and sanitation, and you can rest assured I follow all of these rules!

Today I’m going to be talking about hygiene which is a big concern in our industry and it’s so important that you take it seriously to save yourself hassles such as:

* Your clients getting allergic reactions
* Contamination of your face paints that infect others
* And getting sued for all of the above (in extreme cases)
* Below are our tips on keeping your tools hygienic.

People to Avoid Painting
Never paint someone who has:

Any open cuts or sores on their face.
A cold sore, conjunctivitis, or any other known infectious skin condition.
A food allergy or allergic reactions to soaps, skin creams, etc., without a prior skin test.
Face Paints Palettes and Kits
If they have cuts or open sores on their face, think about painting something on their hands, arms or even legs. If they can’t get their faces painted, at least a little bit of body painting might help put a smile on their face, and parents will love the fact that you’re considerate of their child’s feelings.

Keeping Your Tools Hygienic
Hygiene is important but don’t get too carried away. Some recommend that all brushes, sponges, and palettes must be cleaned or replaced after painting someone and before painting the next person.

Although this may sound time consuming, brushes and sponges can be quickly rinsed quite quickly in hot water (as this will kill the germs). If you’re painting lips, a cotton swab works great and is disposable.

The most important thing to remember is that you should only be painting faces that are clean, so if you’re only painting clean surfaces then you’re not likely to be spreading anything around.

Some other tips are listed below:

It is a good habit to get into to ask parents before you work on their child if they have any allergies or skin sensitivities. If you’re unsure, you might try a test patch on the inside of the wrist.
Some (very few) children have extremely sensitive skin and will break out with a rash with even the most pure products. So you should always have a disclaimer on your table, just in case.
Use a baby wipe to clean a child’s face (if he/she has a runny nose or food/drink on their face) before painting it – so your tools don’t get contaminated.

Obviously your own hands should be clean before you start painting. And you should try to wipe them occasionally on a baby wipe to keep them clean while you work.
Keeping your water looking fresh and clean is important. Change it frequently.

Only use one sponge per face, or wash the sponge before you use it again.

Wash your brushes before using them on another person. It helps if you have alot of brushes – this way you don’t have to be washing brushes inbetween each client, you can just use a different brush.

Some insurance policy guidelines, and also FACE (The UK Face Painting Association) recommend never painting the face of a child under three years old, but this is a guideline, not a rule. Children under 3 have not yet built up their full immune system, so might be more susceptible to a reaction. The choice will be yours, but you should be careful. You might want to paint an arm or leg on children under three.

Make sure brushes and sponges are cleaned in soapy water after each day’s session. You can save yourself some time by putting your sponges in the washing machine on a “warm/hot” cycle for a thorough cleansing each evening.

Look after your tools, and they will last you for years. Thoroughly clean brushes and sponges after each session, but make sure you don’t put them away damp. If you do they could mold.

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Baptism and Communion Face Painting and Balloon Twisting

February 27, 2015August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

It seems as if Baptisms and Communions are upon us! Spring must have sprung!

I still have most Sunday mornings available for March and beyond, so if you’re looking for face painting and balloon twisting at your religious event, here are a few things to know:

I’m happy to dress appropriately for any event! Just let me know the dress code of your event or church
I have fun themed designs like chicks, ducks, crosses and everything else you could want! Great for baptisms and communions, AND spring!
Balloon twisting is great for all ages
Face painting is great for toddlers and up
If you want to take formal photos, remember to invite me to face paint AFTER you’re done with those! Receptions are a great time to keep the kids entertained 🙂

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Making Sure Your Summer Party Isn’t a Bummer

All Parties Can Have Face Paint and Balloon Twisting!

Read My Blog!

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From the Face Painting Blog!