Easy Tips And Ideas To Have Fun With Face Paint - Simple Children's Face Painting

This is a simple guide to face painting, with some great tips and ideas to get your imagination flowing. Children love to dress up and have their face painted, it's an exciting play experience for them. Knowing these skills comes in handy when you have fancy dress party’s coming up, school productions, or your just having fun with your children. Even if your not very creative or artistic your bound to enjoy yourself so don't worry to much about perfect results. Just take it in your stride, make it a fun and exciting time between you and your child.

I run a before and after school club and as soon as we get the dressing up box out the children are so happy, and a queue forms because they're all wanting their face painted to match their outfits. The favourites tend to be dogs, tigers, scary monsters, pirates, witches, butterfly’s, princesses and clowns as well as many more. The children enjoy it so much which makes it so rewarding for me and the other play workers. So how do you get started? How do you keep your children happy whilst your painting their face? How do you paint your chosen character? These are the things we're going to consider in this article.

First off you need your face paint. There are so many different brand's of face paint, which one you use is totally up to you. I prefer using anti allergy face paint in a pallet, just so there are no reactions between the face paint and the skin and I find paint in a pallet the easiest to use a sponge and brush with. But there are also tubes of face paint and face paint crayons, so have a try with all of them and see which you like best. Once you have your face paint, set yourself up with a table; your probably going to need a pot of water, a few paintbrushes and sponges to save washing in between colours, some paper tissues or a damp cloth to wipe away mistakes, a picture to copy from, and your face paints. You can do a patch test on your child's inner wrist to make sure there are no reactions the day before. You are now ready to start!

Make this activity fun, most children love to have their faces painted, especially when they see the finished result. They'll want it done more and more. But the first time it might be a bit weird for them. So why not try these suggestions:

• Let your child look through some pictures of other children with face paint on and let them pick what they want to be for themselves.

• Paint your own face first to prove to your child that it's okay and fun or let your child paint your face.

• Sit your child down and give them a mirror so that they can watch the transformation for themselves.

• Talk them through the process, tell them what your doing, and what colour your using, tell them it may feel a bit cold on their skin.

• Get all excited about all the fun their going to have when their face paint has dried, and what they can do next.

• If they are a bit apprehensive give them there favourite toy to hold.

Surely one of these ideas will keep your child happy and excited whilst they're waiting for the finished result.

This is the hardest part, but it's only as complicated at you make it. Try following these simple steps:

• Start by sponging on the base colour, for the best effect dab or pat the sponge on the face to avoid smear lines and marks.

• Once that is dry, add the next main detail area. Usually done with a small sponge or a paint brush. If you make a mistake use a damp cloth or paper tissue to wipe the mistake away and repaint with a small brush.

• Finally add the little details using a thin paint brush, making sure that you don't press on hard so that you don't hurt your child.

You then need to allow the whole face to dry, the time for this varies with different types of face paint, but shouldn't take longer than ten minutes.

They are my face painting tips and ideas to help you and your child have fun with face paint. I hope they help you out. Face painting opens a whole new world of adventures, for many different occasions. Now your fully equipped and have the know how, don' t delay get stuck in and have fun! There's so many thing's you can be; a soldier, frog, monkey, cat, flower, angel, alien, vampire or a super hero to name a few.Let your imagination flow and most importantly have fun!