Party advice

I was going to say I have my first party booking in two weeks , but its not really, it's just been over two years since my last one after dropping off the planet for a while, so it feels like my first party! and my last hands on painting was in november, yes i have just been practising madly, so am immensely nervous.
Ok so there will be around 20 kids there so I will be painting fast designs and have told the mum they will not be too detailed which she is happy with. So here's a list of the faces I was thinking of, ones that I am comfortable with. Any suggestions for more? Does that seem enough , I know a lot of people have said go with what you know, but want to be prepared as I can if possible.

Boys,
Dragon, Monster, Skull, Lizard, Dragon, Snake. Barb wire . Spider-Man
Spider and web. Shark. Batman. Robot. Tiger

Girls
Butterfly . Swirly eye. Tiger. Princess. Cat. Dolphin. Puppy. Rainbow /stars. Fairy. Bird
Mask
Am going to do some kind of board-design , not sure wether it will be photos or
the ones painted on face templates
I just realised I have more boy designs than girls....any popular girls ones at the moment? Does anyone know if that Monster High thing popular in Australia?
Thanks in advance, off to order more Wolfe white and black. Yippee, haven't bought paints in ages...
Thanks in advance,
Louise

Hello Kitty is very popular here in the States. Not sure about Australia, but in any event it's a super easy, fast design.

girl pirates are quick and cute.

That's a good boys list, I never can think of enough for them. I personally think that is plenty

No matter what is on my list for boys I always end of painting spider man if he's on my list or batman if spidey isn't on the list

And a unicorn??? My daughter loves it. And hearts and rainbows with clouds is always good i guess.

You might want to include a few arm art in case you encounter kids with face rash or parent doesn't want paint on the face. If you don't have an option, they might ask you to paint something you're not prepared to paint.

Sneeze- . My unicorns are little sad, cant get the shape of the head sorted, Mee-Mee Thanks heaps, didn't even think of arm designs. Veelux- girl pirates- never even crossed my mind , doesn't that make me old fashioned . jenny nixie Miss kitty looks easy thanks. Oops meant hello kitty- I actually googled miss kitty by mistake and discovered she is a face painter..
Loveallyourart- I made myself search for boy designs after I painted some boys last year and all I could offer was half monster face and a sad looking hulk. Oh and an armband . I had a few boys come up but walk away after lookin at what i had to offer. I was so unprepared .
Thanks for your help everyone.

This helped me tons! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdDQ7ElV1WY

Miss Heidi, I hate Spider-Man, my lines are too wiggly, but I will have him there, I've heard he's a favourite. Batman is way easier for me. Thanks

Thanks Erica, love LIsa Joy. Should be going to bed now, but am so not tired. Might watch this before I turn in. Shouldn't , but I will. I hate not being able to sleep..

Silversky you have stencils for making unicorns, you just have to outline theme and make bright eyes. And i also used the you tube video of Lisa Joy Young. It's a great tutorial.
And girly clowns, with pink and purple. My little pony? And a fish mouth/cheek design?

Hi silversky. I'm very new to face painting and up until this weekend, was practicing on a doll's head as the males in my family hate being painted. Anyway, I had the same problem about what to paint at my first party this weekend (with 45 kids). So I just printed off some popular designs for boys and girls and stuck them in a folder. And yes, I needed to look at them for guidance, but it was great practice. I didn't have a lot of pics and I just improvised. I.e. painted a pink tiger mask instead of using the traditional colours. The boys tended to all copy one another (so loads of spidermen and batmen..lol). I really was super nervous and my hand shook for the first few kids. The line work was awful, but thankfully the parents were really supportive and it was free anyway...so they didn't complain. Good luck, but I wouldn't worry too much about lots of designs as you can use the same ones over just using different colours.

thanks sneezle , practiced unicorn and have one am happy with sorry if its big.
except i need to make the horn bigger than the ear...
fish would be easy too I think.
glad your party went well cath03. I am still nervous as I am charging for the party , my friend insisted and I want to give them value for their money! I figure hopefully they will all want what she /he has...

yay!! had my party today, it was freakin awesome !! , will post more later on about what I learned and how it all went. now I need to spend time with my girls to make up for being a nervous lunatic all week!!
Louise
PS. Yippee

So the party went so much better than I thought, I was so nervous Saturday morning I thought I was going to throw up and even had thoughts about ringing and cancelling due to illness!! Then I kicked myself up the behind , told myself "suck it up princess, if you're no good, apologise and don't take the money."
Things I learned
- Be very very careful how u take out your brushes and always have a spare set tucked away. Yes I dropped ALL of my favourite brushes onto the floor with my trembling hands. (Tip learnt from the forum, thank you whoever posted about spare brushes)
2-some 2 year olds can sit still longer than some 10 yo, a little cutie was wheeled up in her pram, smiled and held out her arm, I did a quick butterfly, warned her dad that she may just rub it off straight away , but no she then held out her other arm. I laughed and did another quick one. Then she giggled and turned her head and leaned her cheek to me. Her face when I held up the mirror was priceless.
3- always pack your camera first into the kit, yes I forgot it. My phone has a terrible camera, thinking its time to upgrade so I always have one on hand. But I don't think I would of had time to run around and get permission of all the parents anyway, how do you do,that when you have 20 kids to paint?
4 - my hand will stop shaking after the first one or two kids
5- don't assume that the person sitting in front of you is a boy, and suggest a spider when they don't know what to get. Perhaps ask what they like first??? She wanted something quick on her neck so I did spider and web, lucky she thought it was cool. I didn't discover she was a girl till I had finished and someone said her name. Oops.
6- little ones love to touch your cakes!
7- have some sort of number system , one of the mums offered to write a list of names on her phone and get the kids for me, which was great, but i didnt realise she was deleting there names as they got painted , so I didn't know how many I had done. I did a quick tally when i got home, back tracking who got what and think I did about 23, was told there would be about twenty. Didn't mind so much this time, I prob could of kept going
- at first I kept checking the photos to make sure I had all the details just right, exactly as my display board, but realised that I didn't need to be so precise, and made each one a little bit different and the kids were all happy, except one who reminded me I forgot a starburst.
I could probably go on and on, like the kid who asked me, " can u go any faster I've been waiting a long time you know" and how to paint someone who has fallen asleep mid painting (lol) but I have to take get dressed and take the kids to school...

Oh and two ladies came up and asked for a card after I had packed up. Love love my fat max( yeah another early birthday present). Just opened him up and grabbed the cards...
So thanks to everyone on the forum for all the great tips , you guys are the bomb as my daughters would say..
Louise

Glad your party was a success! Good for you!