Birthday party display

Hey guys. I have a huge PPF event that I do once a year for a month. I'm all set up with displays and lists for a big event, but when it comes to birthday parties I have NOTHING.
I've never bothered with having pictures, but I've booked 2 parties this last week and both clients have asked if I am bringing pictures for the kids to choose from. It has never been an issue for me. What do you guys take to small birthday parties? Anything? I personally hate having pictures because kids always expect they will look EXACTLY like the picture, and I like to use my creativity with every face. (Also.. it's just another thing to pack up and worry about taking).

I've got a binder for small groups bookings - you can see it HERE

That's a really good idea, Shannon. I like the tiny pictures. Makes it more managable. You always have the occasional parent that REALLY has to see pictures before you paint, too. I'm on it!

I feel your pain. I had a princess party and I was going to go without any pictures. Mom said she wanted painting like they do in Disneyland and I was ready to do some fun masks.

The little girls didn't care about photos but grandma insisted I produce pictures. It was really frustrating because some of the ones I had were too elaborate (inspiration photos) for the time I had and I really wanted to try the teardrop mask style with some jewels (bought especially for this party.)

Well, the ones that I free-handed turned out much better than the ones I was trying to "copy" or weren't really "princess" enough.

I've also found that, in general, when I freehand a design at a party and it's pretty fabulous that those that chose a design are jealous...but not many people are willing to trust the painter.

I have heard of painters insisting that they choose the design and it will be tailored to the individual but I haven't been able to get to that point. Maybe it's just having the moxie to insist on it. Maybe someday.

D.

PS: I'm attaching a little "trust the painter" design I did at a fair. She gave me 3 bucks and told me to do what I wanted. She was tattooed so I didn't want to do the usual. I thought it turned out pretty awesome and it matched her personality well.

That's a nice elegant design Denise.
My events are pretty well split between PPF and private parties, with a smattering of corporate thrown in.

For the birthday parties I always take a book with me. The few times I have tried to do it out of my head, I have had parents asking for a book the kids can look at or kids who can't come up with a design they would like to try.
So I just take the book.
I carry a black binder, like a one inch school binder and then I print out pages with four to nine designs on them and place them in protective sleeves. It works and has been sturdy enough to last four years so far. I replace pictures as I need.

I think I will come up with a binder "just in case".. but in general, I like to go without. That is a very beautiful rose design, Denise! I agree with you 100%. If I can just look at the child and what they are wearing and they give me a general "mask" or "butterfly" request... the design turns out MUCH better. This is especially true when I'm painting for Halloween. I work at a little Halloween boutique village the entire month of October. It's SUCH a great opportunity to be creative.

Shannon Fennell wrote:I've got a binder for small groups bookings - you can see it HERE

Looked at your set-up, Shannon. I was so surprised to see that our "mottos" are almost identical... I only joined the face paint forum a couple of months ago when my friend, thefacepaintlady, told me about it... so I didn't know about you or anyone else in the face painting world. My business and motto were long before printed on my work t-shirt and business cards.... but:

FANTASY FACES
"Where Everyone is a Work of Art"

Must be great mind do think alike...lol!!!

!

I take a photo album with me to parties. (The front pictures are interchangeable)


In it there are three sheets of drawn designs done in pen, (no colours) that they can choose from (one sheet is entirely different types of skulls - I had fun - one is according to the event - could be one with seasonal designs/theme of the party/type of celebration, etc. )

- and then there are example photos taken randomly at various events of faces I"ve painted - some of which are not in the designs area and some of which are. There are not photos for every design offered.

Having the diversity of pictures vs. photos means that they don't expect anything particular other than the basic idea of a design - they can see the differences in the photos I provide. They also get the idea they can just make up their own design because they see photos of things others have made up. It seems to work well

Here's the 'general one':



Here's the 'skull one':


Here's one I used for Thanksgiving:



The cool thing about an album is that it's really easy to replace pictures (both drawings and photos) that get out of date, or not chosen much, with things that are more popular...or as skill increases

for events, I ALWAYS have photo banners posted... but for parties, I haven't brought pics with me ever since I went from small photos to banners. Not really a conscious decision, it's just too inconvenient to hang banners at a private party. If they really want to see pics, I could pull up my website albums on my phone, but no one has made a fuss about it... I just tell them I can paint almost anything as long as I have a picture if I'm not familiar with it.

It is hard to hang stuff at parites! I have a photo album, and a list. I don't sweat getting everything in the album, because I have may list.

In the front, I have the pics of the kids with bad reactions to craft paints, and an explaination of how to keep this from happening, and instructions for removal, plus a note to take a card becasue the removal instructions are on the back of my card...

I have a flier that I rotate pics out of, and it is on the front of my fat max. I use a pice of sticky (cool) laminator to make it stick.

I like the one sheet on your fat max. Good idea.

Miss Ronnie wrote:

Shannon Fennell wrote:I've got a binder for small groups bookings - you can see it HERE

Looked at your set-up, Shannon. I was so surprised to see that our "mottos" are almost identical... I only joined the face paint forum a couple of months ago when my friend, thefacepaintlady, told me about it... so I didn't know about you or anyone else in the face painting world. My business and motto were long before printed on my work t-shirt and business cards.... but:

FANTASY FACES
"Where Everyone is a Work of Art"

Must be great mind do think alike...lol!!!

!

Yeah.... great minds!

My complete tagline is "Whether you're a Beauty or a Beast - Everyone's a Work of Art!" It is on my tire cover on my RAV4, as well as on all my promo items, website, yadda, yadda...

I use a 3 prong folder for my pics

What I've always done is had 4x6 drawings in protective sleeves. The kids waiting in line can grab one from the pile and hold onto it while they wait, so when they sit down I can get started right away without asking them what they want.

I see how it is kind of a creative hinderance to have images available... I'm so used to painting from my premade designs that I've never actually just 'winged' it before. I should try that!

For my images, I just made a stock face in Photoshop and printed off a bunch of copies... then just draw on them with pencil crayon whichever design I want.

And since I'm a new member I can't post pictures of them yet... *weeps*

I use a telescoping pole onto which I have a clip that clips onto my fat max. I made a black foam board with pictures velcroed onto that, that clips onto the pole. The pole breaks down into a small bag that is about 18 long that fits into my fat max when I leave



The clients can see the photos, and I can also see them if I need to refer to it quickly.



I bought the system online at
Clip signs sign support system

This last weekend I created an alternative to taking my book. I put a majority of my quick designs (20 per hour) right on foam core. It was a little bit of a pain because the board absorbed so much paint so I had to go over them about 3 times to get the color right.

A lot of my bookings have been corporate or large parties so I wanted a board I could just grab and run with. I probably should have taken the time to buy a more neutral color like yellow, but the black is sharp looking...it's just hard to see the spider and scorpion.

It's nice at parties because most of the designs are one-stroke with white or black so I only took out about 5 large cakes and left the rest in the Fat Max.

D.

That's a nice idea Denise. Much better than the sheets I print out with just the names of my quick designs!

Those are really cute designs! Love the fish and the frog.