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FREE Balloon Tutorial: “Head Huggers!”

This week I came up with a fun idea for some headband balloons that I have been calling “head huggers!” These are SUPER easy and fast to make, and there are SO many possibilities to mix them up with different characters! I put together a little tutorial, and I can’t wait to see what YOU do to take this idea to the next level! Be sure to share your own creations…we love to see your work!

Since the standard heart shaped cat prints that so many twisters love to use have been hard to come by lately, I thought I’d try something different! The cat heads I used on my kitty head hugger I purchased on Amazon. They come with cardboard ears and a roll of glue dots. So for parties, what I did was cut apart pieces of the glue dot roll so I had short pieces with two dots each, stuck them in place on the ears, and then when I need to attach them at a gig, I can just peel off the backing and stick them on. I think they look pretty cute, and a great alternative to the heart shaped cats!

  • Headbands 1″ Clear – 10 pack
    Headbands 1″ Clear – 10 pack
    $5.50
  • Betallatex 260B Pastel Matte Nozzle-Up – 50ct
    Betallatex 260B Pastel Matte Nozzle-Up – 50ct
    $9.99
  • Betallatex 260B Nozzle-Up Individual Colors, 50ct
    Betallatex 260B Nozzle-Up Individual Colors, 50ct
    $8.50$9.99

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Tuesday Tips @ 10: Brush Care!

Happy Tuesday! This week I’ll share with you my brush care best practices…this is how I have kept my brushes working their best for many years!

  • Brush Bath 4oz Refill Bottle
    Brush Bath 4oz Refill Bottle
    $13.00
  • Brush Bath Set of two 4 oz Spray and Refill Bottle
    Brush Bath Set of two 4 oz Spray and Refill Bottle
    Product on sale
    $25.00
  • Loew-Cornell Brush Tub II
    Loew-Cornell Brush Tub II
    $13.99
  • Heart Shaped Brush Cleaning Pad
    Heart Shaped Brush Cleaning Pad
    $3.99
  • Cameleon Brush Soap
    Cameleon Brush Soap
    $12.00
  • Ultimate Face Painting Brush Wallet by JestPaint
    Ultimate Face Painting Brush Wallet by JestPaint
    $44.99
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Tuesday Tips @ Ten: Bricks with a Brush

What do you do when you can’t find your favorite brick stencil? For this week’s tip I’ll share how I make perfectly uniform bricks with NO stencil! I still love my stencils, but when I misplace mine or just forgot it at home (which, let’s face it, happens a lot with stencils), this is what I do!

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4 Speedy Snails

Today I was practicing some balloon twisting, and working on coming up with a few variations of a snail! The little orange one is just a single 160 balloon with a yellow scrap. The pink & yellow one uses two 260’s and one pink 160, while the bigger one with the chrome shell uses three 260’s and a white round!

It’s super useful to have multiple ways to make different things, not only for the ability to adjust your speed at an event, but to account for any variations in the supplies you may have packed!

It got me thinking of course of how we do this same thing with face painting. I can do a quick cheek art version of something, a more detailed half-face, or a full face, for many of my designs! So I thought I’d put together a little video of the amount of variety you can achieve JUST within the CHEEK ART category alone! Here I start with s super fast snail that is made up of one pounce of a dauber and three teardrops! I then go on to add a little more detail, stepping it up with google eyes, and finally with more shading and festival glitter! The variations are endless, but I hope you enjoy this little sampling of speedy snails!

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Introducing: Tuesday Tips at Ten!

If you follow me on social media, you’re already way ahead of me here! It just dawned on me that I have failed to include my blog in the locations where I’m now sharing tips every Tuesday! SO, I’m going to take this opportunity to introduce my new “thing” to my blog readers here and get you all caught up!

Basically, every Tuesday at 10:00 am central time, I am going to be sharing some sort of tip with you! It could be face paint related or something for other art forms like balloons, glitter tattoos, etc. It could be a business tip. Some might be mind blowing, some might be “well duh, I already knew that!” But my goal is to share as many tips as I can come up with, and I hope that at least a few of them help you out in some way! I’ll try to keep them roughly 2 minutes long, give or take, but it’ll depend on the tip of course. Quick and helpful is my goal!

I started on Tuesday, November 22nd so there are a few already out there. I’ll post them below! And from here on out, I’ll try to remember to post these here on the blog so you don’t miss any if you are a blog subscriber! You also should be able to find these on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

SO, watch, subscribe, and enjoy! Please do comment if you find any of these useful…it helps me to know if I’m sharing good stuff or not! 😉 And if YOU have a great tip to share, send it our way! I’d love to share your tips too, and of course give YOU credit!

Thanks so much and happy painting!

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How to Paint a Sweater Texture

Just in time for your ugly Christmas sweater paintings, I’ve put together a super quick video to show you how to create a cable knit sweater texture! It looks super detailed, but really it’s just a matter of finding the right sized tools to make the size knit you want, and then repeating a pattern of short strokes and “stamps” with a petal brush. Enjoy!!

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Two of My Favorite Summer “Gigs!”

Now that things are barely settling down a bit, I thought I’d post some photos from a couple of my favorite annual gigs that were last week!

 My mom and I have been doing this outdoor concert together for the past few years at the Village at Mendota Heights. So far we’ve always lucked out with great weather!  There’s a cute grassy “square” outside where all the families gather to listen to children’s entertainment.  This year there was even a petting zoo!

a few happy customers!

My mom painting

 Then the next day I painted at another one of my favorite events to work at…the fall kickoff party at Virtuosos Music Academy in Plymouth! The past few years they’ve been including some of the other neighboring businesses and the event grows every year.  It is free and open to the public with wonderful live music by the students, karate demonstrations from the nearby karate school, and this year they even had free Starbucks, and some professional stylists from The Style Room styling and spraying kids’ hair fun colors!

some musicians performing from the music school

I had just a few minutes to paint my own arm when I started! I love doing the music related designs at this event.

My little portable face painting setup.  It all folds up and fits in the back of my VW Beetle!

A little father son arm painting!

There was a rush of “eye swirls” after everyone saw this one! I love how it matched her earrings!

It was a busy end to a busy summer, and I still have more events to paint at this September.  Business is booming and I’ve been having a lot of fun!  Before we know it I’ll be posting photos of Christmas gigs with Santa…gotta enjoy these summer days as long as we can!