Wild Things and Mardi Gras

I’ve been remiss in updating. Lately I’ve been working a lot of jobs where there simply isn’t time to take photos. Fortunately, I had a great “wild thing” birthday that was more low key and a lot of fun. The birthday girl asked to be a purple gorilla, which was a first for me, but I think she turned out darling!

I also had a fun Mardi Gras party last week. I did a lot of practice on my masks. The only photo from the party itself is of a lovely young woman who requested a purple elephant. It was such a unique petition that I had to snap a quick photo.

Busy Little Bee

Did you know that Melissa means honeybee? Well it does, and that’s what I’ve felt like lately–a busy little bee. First, I was working on developing my new custom glitter tattoos. (More coming on those soon, as well as a fun glitter tattoo party giveaway!)

Then, I had about a million jobs all in a row, and no time to post about them. For many of them, I didn’t even get photos. That’s how slammed I’ve been, people. I don’t even have time to charge my camera battery.

Fortunately, the lovely Denise Cold of Painted Party had a camera with her at a recent job and let me snap some photos. These are from a large corporate event in Park City, Utah. It was a lovely breezy mountain day, and I had a blast painting so many fun people (including a spunky grandmother and her granddaughters).

In addition to some other jobs last week, I also worked the Davis County Fair. You can find some great photos of the fair from Michael Bateman Photography on his website. My pathetic iPod photos can’t compare, but I’ll post them anyway for all you rabid fans. 🙂 I did a lot of henna as well, which was a nice change of pace.

 

 

 

And the Winner Is . . .

At Syracuse Heritage Days I had a drawing for a free face painting party. I’m happy to announce the winner, but first some photos.

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With no further ado, the winner of the free 10 person face painting party is:

Shay Heywood!

Congratulations, Shay. I’ll be in touch soon.

 

Ogden Arts Festival

Despite an unusually chilly day, there were plenty of people at the Arts Festival in Ogden this weekend. I was amazed at the scope of talent and styles featured, and I was happy to see so many families bringing kids to experience local art first hand. Of course, there is no more intimate experience with art for a child than face painting. I was honored to be able to share my love of body art with the families in attendance. I had some awesome requests, including the lightning sword below!

Preparing for Heritage Days

I’ve been adding some new designs and reworking some old ones in preparation for Syracuse Heritage Days, June 29-30th. Which of these would you choose?

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Get Air Sportsplex Spider Man Event

Spider Man, Spider Man, he’s so cool, and I’m a fan . . .

Last Saturday, I spent the day at the Get Air Sportsplex in Kaysville celebrating the grand opening of their indoor trampoline park (that’s right people: trampoline park!!!!) with Spider Man and his friends. If you live in Utah, the Sportsplex is definitely worth checking out. The kids were going nuts for this place!

Once again, I was painting with my partner in crime, Denise Cold of Painted Party. If the Painted Otter is Northern Utah’s favorite face painter, then Denise is Central Utah’s favorite painter. If you are a Utah County person, book her ASAP! Do it! Right now! You’ll be so glad you did.

As a side note to face paint people, I broke in my BAM stencils at this event and LOVED them. They work especially well with Starblends. I wish they weren’t so pricey, but at least they are reusable forever.

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KUTV :: News -2News AM Stories – Wed, April 18, 2012

This morning I was lucky enough to paint faces for my local news. You can check out the video here: KUTV :: News -2News AM Stories – Wed, April 18, 2012.

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Also, here are some more pictures from Channel 30 News on Friday. We had the chance to play with the Alpacas from River Rock Family Farm, the only Animal Welfare Approved farm in Utah. These sweet animals were so friendly and cute. You should definitely check out the farm if you live in Utah. Meeting these cuties was the highlight of the day.

Floating Lanterns and Fabulous Faces

So last weekend I had the opportunity to paint at another HUGE birthday party. This time, the birthday girl was turning six, and she was surrounded by a lot of love. The party was Tangled themed, but the face painting was a free for all. Tigers were popular, with zebras and puppies close behind. There were also a lot of fun boy faces.

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Once again, hubby came along to do balloons. He’s mastered swords, shields, puppies and flowers–he even invented a balloon “gun” which was popular with the boys. One of the coolest moments of the evening was when the guests released lanterns–just like in the movie.

Brother Sister Birthday and First Birthday Family Fun

Last weekend I had the chance to paint for a lovely pair of siblings that shared one fabulous birthday party. The theme was carnival, and the mom went all out with amazing homemade decorations and lots of fun games and activities. The kids had a great time, and I had a lot of fun painting for them. They were all so excited and enthusiastic; it made my job easy.

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos. I forgot my camera and had to make do with my phone.

The birthday boy and girl.

This was my first request for a princess castle. I think it turned out okay considering it was my first time.

Isn't she a beautiful zebra?

This is my generic Spider Man and Batman. What do you think? Since I don't offer commercial characters, this is my compromise.

This weekend, I was lucky enough to book a HUGE party for an awesome family in honor of a little boy’s first birthday. This is one lucky kid! His family came out in droves to celebrate with him. There was a bouncy house, DJ, carnival games, and of course, face painting! The best part was that people kept bringing my and my hubby (who was working as my balloon twister) huge plates of delicious food. Then they sent us home with even more–I paid my babysitter in food. The potato salad was the best I’ve ever had–no lie.

Once again, I forgot my camera, so the family was kind enough to email me this picture. There were a lot more faces painted, but here is a sampling.

The World’s Luckiest 2 Year Old

I have to admit, when I got a call a couple of weeks ago for a 2-year-old’s birthday party with 20-30 kids expected, I was a little wary. I mean, who throws that kind of party for a 2 year old? I was a slightly worried that this was going to be a lot of spoiled little kids in party clothes that were used to getting their way. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

What this party was really about was sharing one family’s joy with an entire community. There were dozens of people, tons of great homemade food, lively music, and just a lot of love in the room. I truly felt honored to be invited to celebrate with these kind, generous people. I can only hope I made them happy. Best of all, I got to bring my hubby along to do some balloon twisting. All in all, it was a truly enjoyable night.

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