Visual journaling

I am not much of a journalER...When I was a kid, I had a diary, that my brother found and he read aloud my ONE entry. I was soooo embarassed that I swore I would never write down my thoughts again.

Well, a few years ago I read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. She talked about a good way to start tapping into your creativity was to start every morning with "morning pages." 

These pages are pretty much 3 pages of notebook paper where you just write. They don't have to make sense, no worry about capitilization or punctuation. You could even throw them away after you were done (that last part perked my curiosity). Well, the point of the "morning pages" is to dump thoughts, worries and even my prayers to God onto these pages so my mind could be clear to receive those ideas that are ttrying to come, but are getting cut off by all the things that are tumbling around in my head. I tried them and I liked doing it. I found that it did help me to be more creative. 

Consistency is a problem for me, so I did not keep up with them.

Well, last week I did find something similiar to the "morning pages."

                     It was called "Visual Journaling." 

There is a book, however, I have not read it.
I am loving this way of journaling. It is not only "morning pages" or "brain drain" but it also involves some drawing. These 'visual journailing entries" have even inspired some new artwork ideas for me. What I love most about it is that it is always a surprise what I end up with. So, here are the steps that I follow below...

• 1. When you first wake up, write three pages of whatever it is that is in your head.


• 2. I read a chapter in Proverbs or any other bible passages.


• 3.Close my eyes and let my pen move across the paper ( I try not to think about anything specific.)


• 4. I open my eyes and try to see what image or images I can find in my scribbles - just like when you find images in the clouds.


• 4. Take a sharpie and outline your images.


• For me, I am really pleased with the images I am finding.

• You can let these inspire some new artworks. 

•  I hope this helps some of you out there with creativity!

New Beginnings

Hello out there! It is 2010 and I wanted to take this year to start my journey on working on my personal art work.
For the last few years I have been building up my "face painting" business. I get to paint all the time, however, this year I want to work my personal art work; sketches, finished pieces and works in progress.This summer I had the chance to help illustrate a book for a friend of mine - Donna Pilkerton. After working on it - I said to myself, "Margie, you have time to work on everyone elses projects. Why don't you have time for your own projects?"So I am setting out on a journey to be more creative, find a medium/media I like to work in, and possibly begin to sell my art. Creating and selling my own art work has been a dream of mine since I was a kid - better late than never!
So to start this off - here is a finished piece I did recently. I experimented a lot with different media; wood, fabric, gel medium and acrylics.

Pope Park Rec Center Birthday Party

My brother and I face painted at an awesome birthday party this past wekend. It was held at the Pope Park Rec Center in Hartford, Ct. When I first walked in, I thought it was a company party, because of how bright, clean and large the space was. It had a kitchen, a rec hall with pool tables (for those tweens and teens), then thru some glass doors was the other part of the building where there was a very large hall with tables and chairs. There was also a stage.
Of course there was plenty of parking. I also noticed that at the end of the party, there were people to clean up and put the tables back.
Here's some info. on the Pope Park Center:

• Resident rate=$150 per 4 hours(no food) or $200 per 4 hours(with food).
• Non-resident rate=$250 per 4 hours(no food) or $300 per 4 hours(with food).
• There is an application to fill out and submit to the Dept. of Health and Human Services at 2 Holcomb Street, Hartford, CT, 06112.
• The contact person is Mrs.Williams and she can be reached at (860)543-8876.
• Please note that the application approval period can take up to 2-3 weeks so requests need to made early on.

Launch of New Online Party Supply Store

Hello,
I wanted to let all our customers know that we have just launched our new online Party Supply Store - www.FuntasticalFaces.MakesParties.com. We have party supplies for every occasion.
Funtastical Faces is a one stop shop place for all your party needs. Find entertainment, paper goods, gift baskets, candy, toys, accesories and so much more. Take some time to check out our new site!

Places to have Birthday parties 2

Another interesting place we had to work was The Great Escape in Glastonbury, Ct. Although they did not allow face painting were hired to provide glitter tattoos at the birthday Party.

The kids loved it!! Even some adults wanted them. The glitter tattoos were perfect - the children would come in, line up, we asked what design they wanted, we took the time to interact with each child while we were applying the tattoos and then off they went!

Glitter tattoos last between 3 to 5 days depending how you treat them. Not rubbing them when wet and avoiding lotions or oils. My daughter had one that lasted about 2 weeks. But the life span for them are 3 days. They are also very easy to remove. You just use rubbing alcohol or baby oil.

The The Great Escape provides a party room and then the playscape is available for the kids to play on. There was also some arcade games and you pay an extra fee for pizza.

Places to have birthday parties part 1

http://www.funtasticalfaces.com/
Since I began face painting, I have been to many interesting places for birthday parties and met many nice people. So I though it would be nice to SHARE some of the places where I have been for some of my jobs. As I remember or go to new jobs, I will continue adding them. I will not be stating prices, however, I will add the link to the place so you can check it out for yourself and see if you like it. I am not promoting these places - I am just sharing my experiences!

The most recent one was the Elmwood Community Center in West Hartford. This was a nice place. There was an elevator, so I did not have to carry all my supplies up the stairs. It was set up like a school. So the bathroom was down the hallway. The room was set up with plenty of tables.



This was one of the guests at the party!