Taking Face Paint to The Next Level: DIY Mermaid Goddess Look!

September 11, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

Untitled-design-510x510 Loving this post from PaintPal! Do-it-yourself Mermaid Goddess 🙂 You can buy what you need through their company Silly Farm, or hire me for Halloween makeup and save a few dollars! The look is VERY COOL either way!

Check out this crown tutorial on You Tube or click their post to see how to do the makeup too.

Halloween Face Painting is Almost Here!

September 3, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

As a face painter, Halloween became one of my favorite holidays! I love doing appointments in my home for face painting instead of masks (it’s so much safer!) so I just wanted to share a few awesome blog posts to help educate everyone!

CT Body Painting: Do’s and Don’ts

Look at this awesome article:

DON’T use acrylics or other cheap paints as body paint. Body paints are actually giant tubs of makeup similar to liquid eye liner or foundations. Acrylics, temperas, or other paints aren’t made for humans! Click the image on the left to open it up and read it. Remember this guy? He used cheap submarine paint (instead of body paint) to become the Hulk. And then remained the Hulk for months afterwards. Or, even if you can get the paint off you, acrylics can end up staining furniture, clothing, or anything else you touch. Plus, most colors (especially yellow or red) contain heavy metals known to cause cancer. No thanks! And if that’s not enough to convince you, other non-body paints can crack, smudge, and just generally make your costume look awful!

DO go to a professional. Professional body painters use FDA-approved makeups which are made specially for human skin. Even sensitive skin usually does well with this stuff! Plus our body paint is water-soluable (aka comes of quite easily), is applied by professionals (no streaks or smudges!) and we seal it in (aka it doesn’t come off until you want it to.)Now, we get a lot of requests for people asking us where we get Kaleidoscope gets our body paint from because they want to do it themselves. (The short answer is that we get it through professional suppliers up in MA.) But generally, even for a simple painting you’re going to end up dropping $50-75 dollars on enough paint to cover you. And, more than likely, because you’re not used to painting with makeup, you’ll also probably end up frustrated with streaks or uneven coverage. Call a body painter today and see what they’ll give you for a quote or simply tell them your budget. You might be surprised! (If you live in the Hartford or Boston areas, drop us a line for a quote today!)

Read the full article here.

Face Painting vs Masks for Halloween Makeup

There are a lot of awesome safety facts here for families:

Safety at Halloween is more than just stranger-danger. It’s also being thoughtful of cars on dark streets, security at large events, and making sure no one has an allergic reaction. Can face paint or masks be any more safe than the other?

Check out safety, hygiene, cost, and more! This Halloween, what is the difference between face paint and masks?

How I became a face painter!

August 28, 2015 kscope Leave a comment

I get asked alot at parties how I became a face painter! Well, My oldest Grandson Alexander was turning 1 and we wanted to do something nice for his birthday. After all, he was my only Grandchild at the time! (He’s 18 now!)

So our whole big Family got together for a big birthday party. We had my Sister’s backyard and pool, a piñata, and a bounce house! But most of the kids were too little for any of those things. So I went to the craft store down the street and tried to find something fun for them. Well, I found something much more fun than a craft! I picked up a face painting kit and thought “I could do this!”

My face painting might not have been pretty that first day, but I loved it and so did my family! After Alexander’s birthday (and another few grand children!) I just kept doing face painting at all of the birthdays in our Family. Then, friends and neighbors and other parents started asking me if I would do it at their parties. For years I kept face painting here and there for free, but after I retired to spend more time with my family which was really big by now, I decided to start doing it on the side!

I have been face painting now for 17 years, but only 8 of those years have been professionally. I love my job and I love the kids I work with.

Almost all of my business is word of mouth. Alexander helped me with this Website, which I would say is a pretty great trade-off for years of painting his face! 🙂 So if you haven’t met me before the Website Hello! I would love to come to your birthday party whether we’ve met or not and entertain all of the kids there!

I also do balloon twisting and glitter tattoos now, so I can do anything you want!

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?

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!

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.

Ridgefield