Strawberry Social

I had several events last weekend, but only took photos of one painting, because it was too adorable - and funny - not to!

The theme of the first birthday was "Strawberry Social," and this friend of the family took it in stride.  There's seriously nothing better than an adult with a stellar sense of humor, and nothing more fun to paint than a bald head.

It was a great compliment too, as he's an artist in his own right but was impressed with my work!

Zombie Land

I recently painted and did glitter tattoos at a 7th birthday party at Frank's Pizza in Oakland, NJ.  It was a fun place for a party, actually; the kids got to make their own personal pizzas in between getting their balloons from the twister the family hired and face painting and tattoos from me.

The birthday girl chose a leopard, and her little sister a lion cub.

They were so cute.  My little lion kept roaring, even through the singing of Happy Birthday!

I had a couple more cats, too, of both the wild and house variety.

This time, the odd faces out were the monkey, butterfly, and smilie.

Why?  Because even more popular than my cats were my zombies!  We had a whole zombie horde, all shuffling and moaning and groaning.  They were out-and-out hilarious.

 

Better watch out!

Not a Typical Start to the Week

This past Monday, I took a day off from my day job... to face paint!  It was one of the best days ever.  Three other face painters and I went to a beautiful Tudor-style house in Shrewsbury, NJ, owned by an employee of ColArt, the art supply company.  ColArt owns United States distribution of Snazaroo, a well-known face paint made in the UK.

They're looking to increase their marketing of Snazaroo, especially in social media, so they hired us to spend the whole day in the gorgeous backyard on a beautiful day, painting a bunch of very photogenic and well-mannered kids over and over in different faces for their pro photographer and videographer.  It was a blast!  At the end of the day, in addition to all the photos taken of my work, I also got to face paint a video tutorial... and get painted in one too!

ColArt has asked that we not share our work until they've got the official photos out and about, so although I took photos I cannot yet post them here.  I will in the future, though, so you'll have to keep checking!

Meanwhile, the next morning I got an email for a last minute party that same evening.  A young lady was turning four, and her mom suddenly thought it'd be fun to have a face painter.  She was right!

Lots of princesses and butterflies.

A couple of boys who loved their hulk and puppy.

And my favorite... a woman who just wanted me to do something pretty and let me do what I wanted!

She was so happy!

A Sleepover Party

On Sunday, I had a more unusual event for me.  I entertained at the "morning after" of a 7-year-old's sleepover birthday party of just four girls.  It was a blast!  I arrived at 11 a.m. to squeals of "She's here!  She's here!" which is one of the things that make my jobs so great.

For these girls, I brought my henna and temporary tattoos, and their creative brains gave me a run for my money.

Even as the girls went through my glitter tattoo stencils, they asked for the designs to be bigger, so I had to freehand them.  I think I did a good job!

Zoo Do 2014

Last night, some friends and I painted again at the Bergen County Zoo at Van Saun Park in Paramus.  It was a blast!  Two of the other face painters are clowns and I love hanging out with clowns.  Such big personalities, it's a blast.

It's funny, although there are four of us painting, and the way we work it is that there's only one line and each artist with an empty seat just calls for the next person in line, each of us tends to end up with our own popular faces for the event.  I heard the artist nearest me painting kitty after kitty, while I didn't have one single kitty request.  My big thing last night was dragons.  I painted a slew of dragons and had some fun with them.  I love asking kids - or adults, for that matter - "What color are dragons where you come from?"  The most common breeds of dragons seem to be green, red, and blue.

I did get one very specific request for this dragon, but with teeth, which I guess from looking at the internet now (I haven't seen the movie yet and really should), he develops as he gets older; mom called up the image on her phone.  Not sure I captured it, but it was on the fly, so I don't think I did a terrible job.

Of course, even with all the dragons, I couldn't have a gig without butterflies.  There are always butterflies.  But I decided to have some fun with them.

There are also almost always tigers, so I decided to have some fun with those too.

 Not everyone chose pretty.  There were a couple of fierce T-Rexes too.

The coolest request, though, was my last of the night - an owl.  I think I've only painted a full face owl once before, and I know for a fact this one was better.  She loved it!

Ever Try a Potbelly Sandwich?

Eric and I did, at the grand opening of the new one in Maywood, New Jersey, near the Bergen Mall.  They're phenomenal!  And I'm not just saying that because we were hired to do face painting and balloons at the grand opening event.  They really are very good.

 

 

 

We did pretty well that day too, if I do say so myself.