Glen Rock Street Fair

I'll be doing face painting and temporary tattoos at the Glen Rock Autumn Craft Street Fair this year!

The fair runs on October 4, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., in downtown Glen Rock, rain or shine.

Of course, if it's raining, glitter and ink temporary tattoos are a great thing, as they are water resistant.

Come find me and be my canvas!

Halloween Appointments! Make 'Em Now!

It's time to start making appointments for Halloween!

Going to a costume party? Going Trick-or-Treating?

I'll be doing face painting at my location in Wood-Ridge, NJ, and can paint you or your child to match your costume!

Face painting is much safer than a mask - it is comfortable and doesn't inhibit your vision!

Every year, they say children shouldn't wear masks for Trick-or-Treating, as they have trouble crossing streets or can trip on uneven pavement with the resulting lack of peripheral vision, and every year I still see kids wearing masks and getting hurt.

Face painting with my FDA-compliant, cosmetic grade face paints and glitters is much safer and more comfortable, easy to wash off at the end of the night, and great for photos to save for years to come.

Just contact me at njfacepainter@gmail.com for availability and pricing.

I will match any costume, whether it's a band member...

a superhero...

... a villain...

... a ghastly ghoul or monster...

... an animal...

... a faerie...

... a Geisha...

... a princess...

... a pirate...

... a butterfly...

... a bumblebee...

... a clown...

... or any other sort of cool mask, for kids or adults!

I also...

... bake and make chocolates, just not all that frequently. So with my sister's baby shower taking place today, I baked the cakes and made the favors. Three chocolate lollipops in the shape of teddy bears with blocks per person. Why three? Mom and I decided that one looked too small and cheap. So three it was. With 52 guests, that meant 156 lollipops. I did 160 just in case.

The chocolate looked and smelled so yummy while it was melting!

I had 4 of the mold trays, which helped to speed things along a little, but not enough for my taste. It still took hours and hours, over the course of two days.

I used all dark chocolate, as it's healthier and my family prefers it.

Once they were hardened in the proper form, I bagged each one and then tied it with a personalized custom ribbon. The toughest part was the ribbon, honestly. When they're printed, you've got to make sure the text faces the right way. It took some practice.

One of the boxes I had could only hold 106 of the pops, so the rest went into a different box.

Yesterday, it was cake day. I used this pan

to make these cakes

One a yellow butter cake and the other a fudge cake. I torted each so I could fill them with chocolate pudding that I cooked. For the yellow cake, I sliced bananas into the pudding, and for the fudge cake, I sliced strawberries.

One and a half batches of chocolate buttercream and one batch of regular buttercream (dyed lemon yellow and mint green) later, I had two shower cakes, sitting nicely on the cake board I'd covered in gift wrap...

... and a lot of dishes to wash! While I was baking, I thought my least favorite part of baking was greasing and flouring the pan, especially shaped pans like this. Then I got to the dishes, and they definitely win.

The chocolates and cakes were a hit, though. Everyone who didn't eat them at the shower took their lollipops, and both cakes were devoured, not a crumb left. Now THAT is a compliment.

Another Good Evening

I painted at a restaurant again tonight. I've been there several times, but only saw one of my "regular" customers, a little boy who gets a race car on his arm every single time I paint him. Before, it was red. Tonight, I changed it up and did blue, convincing him that he didn't want a black one. Trying to get decent definition on a black car would just not be easy. It's like when kids want to be painted as Darth Vader. I can do a kickin' Darth Maul,

but Darth Vader? Not so easy, what with the all black. I made the mistake of attempting it once. Calling the result a "blob" would be generous.

Most of the evening was spent painting my usual... rainbows with butterflies, rainbows with dolphins, flowers, a tiger, and yes... a Darth Maul.

I did get one little girl who wanted Zoe. It took me a minute and some help from mom to place the name: They'd recently gotten back from Sesame Place, and Zoe is Elmo's orange friend. In fact, the girl's sister got Elmo.

They looked cute together, though while the girls were posing their arms, some Elmo transferred onto Zoe, I notice in the photo.

One boy was truly original. He's the first ever, in all my years of painting, to sit down and say, "Can you do an alien?" Can I do an alien?! Of course I can do an alien! An alien means I get to run free!

I see things I'd add or define more, but I honestly like the result. And he was quite the happy customer.

Temp Tats for Labor Day

Unfortunately, there aren't any photos in this post.

What?! you exclaim. A body art blog post with no photos?!

Yeah, sorry about that. Thing is, we were busy. I mean busy with a capital BUSY. For six hours. No joke.

A fellow body artist, Emilie, who is consistently hired by a local Bergen County country club, asked me and my husband Eric to join her in doing temporary tattoos at the country club's Labor Day party. There were approximately 500 guests, with Emilie and Eric on airbrush, and me on dauber ink tattoos.

Dauber tattoos are done with similar ink to airbrush tattoos, but it's in more of a paste consistency, rather than liquid. The setup is much quicker, the execution about the same. Both types are cared for the same way (don't scrub or use oils or alcohol), and both can last for several days.

The line at the party was consistent, with adults getting tattoos also, and kids getting back on line for a second, third, even fifth tattoo.

It was fun and the kids were pretty great. The nearby reggae band was terrific, and the employees brought us food, which we barely had time to scarf down. So no pictures. But a great experience!

Afternoon of Henna

I was hired to do henna today at my client's daughter's 50th birthday party. Yes, 50th. I was a surprise, part of the birthday gift, because the birthday girl is a huge henna fan. It showed when my client introduced me to her daughter, and she kept looking back and forth between me and her mother saying, "Really? Seriously? You have henna?" and then sort of squealed.

She wasn't the only one; I was a hit at the party in general, and people got henna even though it meant they couldn't get back in the pool on a nice, warm day. My takers were mostly girls and women, though some men went for it too.

I think the only person who might not have loved me to death was a teenage boy who wanted to use my henna himself to "graffiti" inappropriate words or pictures on another boy. With young kids at the party, I didn't think this was the proper venue for such things and refused.

I do lament the fact that I wasn't able to get good, clear photos of these last two. I really liked them, but it was headed toward evening and with the dim light, I had trouble getting the camera to focus properly. I figure they're worth posting anyway.

A First Birthday

I painted at the first birthday party of an adorable young man this afternoon, and in the process, got to be his first face painter! I always love being first. He wasn't crazy about the feel of the brushes, so I did the quickest (and probably messiest) pirate I've ever done in my life. He did seem happy with the result when he looked in the mirror, at least.

And yes, that's dad as Gene Simmons. In fact, I got to paint the whole band!

I've done Gene Simmons before, and Peter Criss (the cat), but I'd never done Paul Stanley and Ace Freeley. They were a fun bunch, each egging the other into getting painted.

It was a day of firsts. I also did my first Sponge Bob, and I think he came out pretty darned good.

And this cutie wanted to be a monster, but was wearing the sweetest pink and yellow dress with flowers and bees on it. I love to match outfits anyway, so she approved my suggestion that I paint her as a monster to match her outfit. This is what we came up with...

How can you not love it?