First Henna designs of 2011

Yesterday the gorgeous smell of Henna was wafting through my house whilst I created Henna cones in preparation for an event at the weekend.  Obviously, it's always wise to check the potency of each Henna batch so I made up a small tester cone and Sharon and I had a little play!

Best wishes
Helen
http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

Henna hands at college

Here are some of the Henna designs that we did for the College students at their Winter Fair yesterday.

Firstly, a festive Sharon! :)

And now to get my false eyelashes out and a ton of glitter so I can get ready for the Cats Whiskers Christmas Party :)

Helen

http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

Testing, testing!

As those of you who know me are painfully aware - I love my iPhone - and this is just a little test to see how well I can update this blog from my phone. :)

Here is a picture of some henna that I did for a friend:


And here's the bruised and battered Tori who bravely assists me when Cats Whiskers do wounds workshops for the Merlin Theatre in Frome!!


If this works I'll have no excuses about updating the blog! Lol!!

Helen
Www.catswhiskers.biz

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

So much fun, so little time!

A big thank you to everyone who booked us during the summer! The Cats Whiskers team have had SO much fun!! :) We've been to parties, festivals, summer camps, fun days and open days all over the area in Bristol, Bath and the South West. So, my apologies for taking so long to update the blog - but there has just been way too much fun going on for me to catch up until now.

So, the children are back at school, the tree's are turning colour, nights are drawing in and we're really looking forward to Halloween!!

But before we get carried away with the witches and vampires, here are some of the highlights of the summer:

Camp Xtra workshop -

Private commission for a fancy dress party - quote from the client, "Thanks very much, it was a great success and was cool how realistic it looked. I'm sure that I'll be in touch again if another opportunity arises to be painted for some reason. It was great fun and just made the costume come alive."

Henna design for a holiday:

From South Gloucestershire library workshops:

A Ben 10 party:

Freshers welcome weekend:

Henna at Sunnyhill

Last Friday night I had the opportunity to go back to my old Secondary school, Sunnyhill in Bruton, to provide Henna for their Bollywood themed sixth form party.


It was a really fun event with all the girls in good spirits! I was crazy busy for my whole time there and was a bit concerned that I hadn't taken enough Henna with me - but in the end it worked out just right!


I was that busy that I didn't get to take many pictures. In fact I only took a couple which were where I'd done the Henna design on shoulders! Taking a photo and showing them was the easiest way to let them see what their Henna design looked like!



This picture is of my hand design the next day with paste off. It developed a bit further into a lovely deep chocolate brown colour. The design is still looking good a week later. :)

I also got the chance to wander around school before the event started and revisit my old haunts. Strange how places look smaller over time! LOL!
Helen
http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

Cats Whiskers team training day

On Sunday the Cats Whiskers team got together to share ideas and practise new face painting designs. It was a really relaxed day with lots of laughs and more than a little creativity!

Here are some of the pictures:

Face painting designs on the practise head by Jo.


No one was safe......


Sharon's finished eye:


Michelle's finished eye:

Sharon doing Henna on Jo:


The finished Henna design:

Princess face painting design:


Roman Centurion face painting design by Len:

Look out for some of the new ideas on our design board or book!

Helen

http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

UWE Freshers Weekend

At the beginning of January, as the students went back to University, the Cats Whiskers team of face painters and balloon modellers returned to UWE for the freshers party.

Len (the other Helen), our balloon modelling expert, excelled herself with a spectacular top hat for Aled - chief Angel - and Sharon was on form with henna and face paint as the pictures show!

Helen
http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

UK Face and Body Painting Convention

The UK Face and Body Painting Convention was held in Telford this year and had over 100 delegates attending. The vendors room was well stocked and we came home with some new products to try out!

I taught several sessions this year. Firstly on Friday I taught a session on Sponge techniques and using those techniques to create different designs on a face, such as scenery or eye designs. Note to self - don't try a completely new design in public when you're trying to teach something! It doesn't work. LOL!

Friday night was quite relaxed with lots of chatting in the bar. Nina brought Henna with her from an earlier class and Jo did a design on Nina's back.

On Saturday I did a body painting on the lovely Rowena. This time I turned her into an elf. :)

Then in the afternoon I taught a class on brush strokes and how to use them to create quick party princesses!

I did quite a fun evil princess face painting design on a gentleman in the class - but didn't get a picture. :(

Saturday night is party night at the convention and this year the theme was Hollywood and the Oscars. We all got dressed up in our party gear! Jo looked particularly fabulous!!

Sharon had a beautiful eye design created for her by Erica:

On Sunday I taught a class on improving your speed and efficiency whilst still providing that WOW! factor in face painting.

Then unfortunately it was all over again for another year!!

Helen

http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

SW FACE Jam Day with Henna!

Last Saturday was the regional get together for the Face Painting Association, FACE (http://www.facepaint.co.uk/). Annie Freeman from Annies Funny Faces in Plymouth is the South West rep and she organised a great day with over twenty face painters from the region coming along to meet up, take advantage of the retailers of paint & related products and generally play with paint!! There was also a fantastic goodie bag with face paint and glitter samples amongst a range of other bits and pieces!

I took some Henna down to play and demonstrate with and here are a few of the designs!

It was lovely to meet up with old friends and meet some of the other face painters that work around the region. A good day was enjoyed by all!

It's the UK Face and Body Art Convention (http://www.facepaintingconvention.co.uk/convention/index.php) in Telford in a month (17th - 19th October), so quite a few of us will meet up again there! I'll be teaching at the Convention again this year covering a range of aspects of face painting - from sponge work & brush work to speed and efficiency through to the sparkling party princess!! It's always a great place to go and learn so I'm already looking forward to it!

Helen

http://www.catswhiskers.biz/

Sparkling with Glitter Tattoos

Friday night I did a job for an agency at a Graduate Ball. The description for what I was supposed to be doing was a little "loose", so I took face paints, temporary tattoos and glitter tattoos just to be on the safe side.

In the end, I spent the whole evening doing Glitter Tattoos. I don't think that I've ever had a job where they have been so popular!! Even better than that, they wanted freehand designs - which are by far my favourite way to work.

A team of us did a festival yesterday. Finally the UK weather was fantastic and there was a great turnout. We were offering face painting, temporary tattoos and henna and were constantly busy the whole time we were there! Hence there are no photographs - I didn't get to look up once! Shame really because I did some lovely henna work that I would have liked a record of.

Helen

http://www.catswhiskers.biz/