Face Painting and Body Art Association (FPBAA) - facepainting, bodyart, henna, airbrush art

I love my director's chair. It saves my back, gives me a greater range of motion and visibility of my lineup and the kids love it. They feel special climbing into the tall models chair to be the centre of attention and be transformed.

The dollar store is my friend. So, off I went in search of a fun and frugal decorating solution. I immediately found two staffs with ghoulish skulls on them. Then I headed over to the kitchen aisle and bought a package of white cheesecloth.

Ingredients/supplies/tools:

• Two ghoulish staffs (heads on plastic sticks) (keep lightweight)
• One package of cheesecloth
• 4 plastic cable/zip ties, or thick rubber bands, or Velcro straps
• 2 packages of tea, or a little iodine, or brown food colouring
• Black magic marker
• Scissors

Steps:

1. I had to take a permanent magic marker and fix up my ghoulish heads. The paint had scraped off some parts and I just used the markers to spruce them up a bit.
2. In a stainless steel pot, boil some water (maybe 2 cups at most) and make some very strong tea (I used orange pekoe but any black tea will do)
3. Put in the cheesecloth to soak. This will give it a very ‘old’ weathered look to it.
4. Remove and wring out. You can let it dry naturally or put it in a lingerie bag and put it thru the drier. (be careful…it might get very tangled that way)
5. Attach the two staffs to your director’s chair along the uprights that support the backrest. I used two plastic cables ties for each side. Extend the staffs to their highest position or as desired.
6. Once dried, spread out the cheesecloth and drape over the top edges of the staff/heads. (You may need to attach with glue or pins. Mine just hooked onto the shape and hung down from there.)
7. Use your marker to draw lines and shadows and wrinkles.
8. Use you scissors to create stringy edges, torn bits and pieces, rips and tears, as desired.
9. Accessorize with spiders, bats, cobwebs, etc.

Now you have a cool ghoulie throne for your models to sit in for their ‘monster makeover.” It makes an awesome backdrop for photos too. The easy thing about this is when you are done for the day, just slide the staffs down to the top of the uprights, fold up your chair as usual, and away you go. No need to remove them.

And I made them for less than $5 !!!

Think of the potential to match your chair to your character, theme, season, or special event! The possibilities are endless. Have fun with it and enhance your setup with your chair.