Simple Face Painting Tutorials

At Flingers, we are really excited to have just taken stock of a HUGE new range of Snazaroo face painting products! We think Snazaroo offer some of the best face painting products around, with tons of colours to chose from and great quality paints, brushes and face painting kits. In fact, we used Snazaroo products at our hugely successful professional face painting day in store last Halloween and you can see some of the amazing results from that day in our picture gallery here.

Snazaroo Face Paint Essentials

Face painting is a simple way to engage with a child’s imagination and make them feel like they really are as pretty as a butterfly or as scary as a tiger! For adults too, face painting it a great way to professionally finish of any sort of fancy dress or even just to show your true colours when supporting your favourite team at a big game! We now have over 30 shades of face paints in stock both online and in store. As well as a super useful book full of simple 5 minute face painting tutorials. We thoroughly recommend this book to get inspired by some easy face painting ideas that anyone can try. You can also head to out Pinterest boards which are packed with some great ideas and discover more face painting inspiration.

The greatest thing about face painting is that is can be really effective even with a very simple design. For any of you parents out there who want to impress at a school summer fete, a child’s birthday party or just want to have a fun and creative day at home with the kids, check out our favourite super easy face painting tutorials by Video Jug below.

A simple but beautiful butterfly face paint tutorial by Video Jug 

We love this creative dinosaur face painting tutorial by Video Jug

How to create an awesome tiger using face paint by Video Jug

Will you be trying out any of these simple face painting tutorials?

DIY Rustic Wedding Themes

Wedding season is fast approaching. 

All wedding couples like to put their own personal stamp onto their big day and impress their guests in the process. Rustic and vintage wedding themes are very popular at the moment for numerous reasons. With a homely, nostalgic and chic feel, rustic wedding themes are a great starting point from which the bride and/or groom can add to and really make their own. Personalising it to suit their day and represent them as a couple. 

With natural and neutral tones, it is a theme which can easily co-ordinate with your chosen colours scheme, the venue, floral arrangements and more. The great thing about rustic wedding themes is that whilst being so easy to create, it is really all down to the minute details and special touches to truly get the perfect decor and impress your family and friends. This wonderful theme can also easily work all year round. Perfect for chic Summer garden weddings full of flowers or co-ordinate with Autumnal tones later in the year for a homely feel.

At Flingers we have just taken stock of some amazing Rustic Wedding decorations to put the finishing touches to your big day and work the Rustic or Vintage theme perfectly. From chic Congratulations Bunting, to adorable and vintage inspired Mr & Mrs Chair Signs.

Hanging Wedding Hearts  |  Rustic Direction Sign  |  Mr & Mrs Chair Signs  | Congratulations Bunting  | Gift Banner

Alternatively, if you want more of a blank canvas from which to prepare and create the key decorations for your venue, try out our Blank Wedding Placecard sets and follow our DIY Wedding Placecard blog post for some great tips and ideas on adding some creative DIY flourishes to your Wedding day.

All of which is available online or in store at Flingers Party Shop. So whether you looking for the last minute finishing touches to your upcoming big day or planning ahead for a summer wedding, look no further than Flingers.

Do you like the rustic wedding theme? 

The Legend of St George

Quickly following on from Easter, we now find ourselves gearing up as a nation to celebrate St George’s Day. Falling this year on Wednesday 23rd April. As the patron saint of England, St George’s Day calls for a little bit of national pride, patriotism and celebration of English history.

Chosen as the patron saint of England in the 1500s, St George is infamous for the legend in which he bravely defeats a dragon! The myth goes that a small village, somewhere in the Holyland was terrified by a dragon that had set up its nest in the very spring that the whole village depended upon as a water source. Each day, a sheep would be sacrificed as a way to distract the dragon, tempting him away from the spring and allowing the villages to collect all the water they need.

However, should there be no sheep available on any particular day, a young woman would be chosen at random from the village and instead offered up to the dragon to tempt him away. One day, the woman chosen for this act was in fact the Princess of the land and despite begging to be saved from certain death, she was taken to the spring and offered to the beast. Luckily, St George happened to be traveling past the village on this very day and chose to intervene! Protecting himself with the sign of the cross he slayed the dragon, rescued the Princess and saved the whole village!

This brave tale is of course a myth spread around England by the Crusaders hundred of years ago. But the nobility of St George has stood the test of time. He is seen as a fitting patron saint for England and other countries who are inspired by his bravery and heroic nature. There is, of course, no better way to get into the spirit of celebrating England’s patron saint than by getting dressed up, decorating your home and proudly displaying the cross of St George!

Plastic Bowler Hat | Patriotic Afro Wig | Foil Balloon | Car Decorating Kit | Waving Flags & Bunting

At Flingers we of course have plenty of St George’s Day fancy dress, decorations, tableware, balloons are more to get you prepared to celebrate this week. From wigs and face paints, to bunting and flags for your car, all helping you to proudly display the cross of St George this Wednesday! Available now online and in store at 73-75 Gloucester Road.

How will you be celebrating St George’s Day?

Image source: www.blog.robertbrindley.com

Classic Easter Biscuit Recipe

We love an excuse to get baking at Flingers and Easter is no exception! With the kids off school, it is a perfect excuse to spend quality time with them and get them experimenting in the kitchen.

Easter Cookie Cutters

Who best to turn to for a classic Easter Biscuit recipe than the wonderful Mary Berry! The great thing about this recipe is its simplicity, a traditional recipe that allows you to be as create as you wish with the final result. Keep the kids occupied a little longer by asking them to help decorate the biscuits with colourful icing. Create classic Easter shapes of bunnies, chicks, easter eggs and more. Use some funky Easter Cookie Cutters to achieve this with ease and then the rest is up to you!

See the recipe below for all you will need to know in order to create this delicious Easter treats that can be shared on this Sunday or even be used as rewards for an Easter Hunt you may be planning! Present your biscuit treats in these adorable Easter Treat Boxes or hand them out in little Easter Cellophane Bags. Great for those little hunters who have worked up an appetite searching high and low for hidden Easter eggs or for handing out to friends and family over lunch on Easter Sunday.

These Easter treat boxes and bags are available online and in store at Flingers along with a range of other Easter themed tableware, cake stands, decorations and even fancy dress to help you celebrate Easter this weekend.

Easter Biscuit Recipe 

Ingredients

For the dough

Mary Barry - Easter Biscuit Recipe

• 200g/8oz softened butter
• 150g/6oz caster sugar
• 2 large free-range egg yolk
• 400g/14oz plain flour, plus extra for flouring
• 1 level tsp mixed spice
• 1 level tsp ground cinnamon
• 2-4 tbsp milk

For the traditional currant biscuits

• 100g/4oz currants
• a little caster sugar, for sprinkling

For the iced biscuits

• 1-2 tsp lemon juice
• 250g/9oz icing sugar
• about 2 tbsp cold water
• different coloured food colouring

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Lightly grease two baking trays lined with baking parchment.
2. Measure the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk. Sieve in the flour and spices and add enough milk to give a fairly soft dough. Bring together, using your hands, to make a soft dough.
3. Knead the biscuit dough mixture lightly on a lightly floured work surface. Roll out to a thickness of 5mm/¼in. Cut out Easter biscuits using an assortment of shaped cutters, such as bunnies, Easter eggs, chicks, spring flowers.
4. Lightly grease two baking trays lined with baking parchment.
5. Place the biscuit shapes on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and lift on to a wire rack to cool.
6. To make the icing, pass one teaspoon of lemon juice through a fine sieve, to remove any pips or bits. Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice, and then add about two tablespoons of water, adding it little by little until you have a relatively stiff but smooth icing. Add a splash more sieved lemon juice if necessary.
7. Divide the icing into separate bowls and mix in food colourings of your choice into the separate bowls of icing, until you achieve the desired shade.
8. Spoon a little icing into a piping bag and pipe your decorations onto the biscuits. For a smooth finish, you can pipe the outline of your design in the firmer icing, then slacken it down a bit by mixing in a little more water, giving the icing more of a runny consistency, and use this to fill in the designs.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter from all at Flingers!

Easter Egg Hunt - The Clues

Have you planned your Easter egg hunt for this Easter weekend? Last week on the blog we suggested some top tips for the best ways to prepare your Easter egg scavenger hunt and how to tailor it to suit all ages involved. This week, we wanted to share some awesome printable clues to add the finishing touches to your plans and preparations! 

Easter Egg Hunt Clues - Free Printouts

These adorable free print outs are designed by April from illistyle.com are available to print out in a range of sizes. Perfect for sticking up or hanging around the garden and point your hunters in the right direction! 

Another great way to entertain the kids (and adults) whilst helping them to discover the hidden eggs is for the an Easter hen to lead the way! At Flingers we have some super fun Easter fancy dress for both kids and adults to dress up in and really get into the spirit of the day. Including this Adult Easter Chicken Costume which is sure to add some giggles to the day! Nominate an adult to keep an eye on the children as they roam around your garden and home whilst providing them with hints, tips and cryptic clues to guide them to the goodies carefully stashed away. 

Our Easter fancy dress costumes are all available online and in store at 73-75 Gloucester Road, Bristol. Whilst browsing our Easter decorations, costumes and goodies, don’t forget to pick up a Easter Egg Hunt Kit or some Easter buckets for the little ones to collect their eggs in throughout the hunt. 

With delivery starting from as little as £1.40, head online now to ensure your Easter egg hunt essentials will arrive in time! 

What else will you be planning the Easter?

Easter Egg Hunt Tips and Ideas

One of best activities to keep kids occupied over Easter and to bring the whole family together is to organise an Easter egg hunt! We wanted to round up some top tips to ensure your Easter egg hunt goes according to plan, entertains everyone involved and is as creative as possible!

Egg Hunting Top Tips: 

Decorate your Eggs

You could start preparing for the big hunt by getting creative with the kids. Decorating Easter eggs is also a great family activity at this time of year and are many ways to paint, colour and decorate eggs. We rounded up some of our favourite techniques with our Easter Egg Decoration Tutorial. 

Colour Coded Eggs

Alternatively, why not colour code the eggs, so that each member of the family or member of the hunt is assigned their own colour to search for. This is a great idea help accommodate children of all ages, allowing you to hide eggs in easy to reach places for the younger ones but making it a little more challenging for the older children. That way you can entertain everyone involved without the need to over simplify the clues or the secret hiding spots to suit the youngsters only. 

Hunt at Dusk

To make your egg hunt a little more unique and exciting, why not plan it in the evening? Kids can use torches to search out the goodies or paint your hidden eggs with glow in the dark paint so that they can be spotted as the light fades! So much fun!

Easter Buckets

Where do the hunters keep all their goodies? In some adorable Easter buckets or baskets of course! These plastic Easter hunt buckets are available now at Flingers and come in this range of designs. The great thing about these buckets is that they can be kept to use again at next years Easter egg hunt and in the meantime be used to store toys away in around the house!

Spell it Out

Use alphabet stickers to spell out a prize, a special message or a final clue to help the hunters find a big Easter surprise at the end of the hunt. Stick letters onto the eggs and once all they have all been recovered, the eggs can be laid and to spell a the message. 

Draw a Map

If spelling out a message with stickers or cryptic clues is a bit too complex for the younger children, then draw a simple map to point out where the Easter goodies are hidden. You could also use signs dotted around the house and garden to help point the kiddies in the right direction!

Keep it fun!

Most importantly however, is to keep the whole Easter egg hunt fun. It will be no fun if the eggs are hidden so well that no one can find the prize! Include a big prize at the end to surprise the kids with when they follow the final clues. Prizes could include tickets to the cinema, a book, a toy or something else to keep them occupied over the Easter school holidays. 

At Flingers, we also have the perfect Easter Egg Hunt Kit to get your scavinger hunt started. The kit contains four card Easter baskets, eight signs to point the hunters in the right direction and 16 cardboard eggs. All for just £2.99, available in store and online! See who can find the most card eggs and perhaps and a few chocolate bonuses along the way. Alternatively, write simple riddles and clues on the card eggs to get the hunters searching for the next hidden bounty!

Easter Egg Hunt Game available now for just £2.99

Will you be planning a Easter Egg Hunt?

Easter Egg Decorating Tutorial

Easter is creeping up on us and we’re excited to start getting creative with our decorations to celebrate this event. Decorating eggs is a great crafty activity to keep young ones entertained during the school holidays and to help inform them about the meaning of Easter time.

There are so many ways that you can decorate eggs at this time of year, using paint, glitter, stickers, patterned paper and more. Having discovered this really easy and modern approach to this traditional crafty activity, we had to share it with you!

Rubber Band Dyed Easter Eggs

The wonderfully creative Sarah Krouse from Homeology suggests using elastic bands to produce a quirky design to your easter eggs. Such a simple but effective idea! Follow the easy tutorial below:

1. Create the dye - Add 2tsps white vinegar to one cup of boiling water. Then add a range of food colourings to create selection of dyes for the eggs.

2. Prepare the eggs - Use rubber bands in a variety of widths and begin wrapping them around the eggs until you are happy with the designs.

3. Get ready to dye - Gently place the eggs into the dyes you have selected to use. Leave to sit for 3-5 minutes.

4. Leave to dry - Carefully remove the eggs from the dye and leave to dry on some kitchen roll, (place in an old egg box to keep them safe). Once fully dry, remove the rubber bands to reveal your designs!

Easter Egg Decorating Kit - Available Now

And there we go! We said it was easy.

If you’re looking to add a little bit more colour and fun to these dyed eggs, or if you are looking for a less messy way to decorate easter eggs this month, try our Easter Egg Decorating Kit. Available online and in store, it is an easy way to get crafty with the kids!

The kit contains a range of cardboard eggs stands to proudly display your creations on as well as an assortment of easter themed stickers, decorations and dots to decorate the eggs with.

Will you be decorating Easter Eggs this Easter?

Spring has Sprung at Flingers Party Shop

Spring has sprung and Easter will soon be upon us. At Flingers we love this time of year because the world around us gets brighter as flowers start to bloom, the evenings get longer and it is a tine to celebrate new beginnings. A feeling which very much is due to Easter creeping closer on the calendar each day.

Yellow is very much a colour which represents this atmosphere at this time of year. Inspired by the colour of daffodils and little hatching ducklings, yellow is a bright colour to welcome in Spring with. So here at Flingers, we're feeling the yellow vibes at the moment and have tons of ways you can brighten up your home, school room or party venue with this vivid colour.

- Polka Dot Bunting - Sunshine Paper Plates - Yellow Cello Bags - Dotty Paper Cups -  Sunshine Plastic Cutlery - Dotty Straws -

Mega Pack of Easter Cut Outs

If you want to add more of an Easter theme to your Yellow Spring Party we’ve got plenty of decorations to top off your party. From Easter Bunny Cut Outs, Cake Stands, Easter Balloons, Banners and more. Including this multi pack of super sweet Easter Cut Outs. With 30 Easter themed cut outs which you can stick on windows, doors and any surface you can think of! Or attach some string & hang from ceilings, door frames and windows to add a bit of Easter spirit and brighten up your home, your party or school halls!

Remember, if you order online, delivery starts from just £1.40! So get stocked up for a great Easter party with Flingers!

Wedding Confetti Inspiration

A wedding isn’t complete until each and every last detail has been carefully considered and prepared for. And what is a wedding without confetti?! The tradition of showering the bride and groom with wedding confetti is a fun celebration for one and all, bring together all the guests at once to share in the spirit of the big day.

We’ve been getting inspired by some creative and crafty ways to supply your guests with confetti as to make sure you don’t miss out on this jovial tradition. We love the thought put into the these ideas, creating delightful cones out of paper, each filled to the brim with colourful confetti. Such a simple idea and so easy to do, all you need is some paper, glue and a pretty basket to hold them all in. Alternatively, use ribbon to hang from the backs of the chairs which will line the ailse. Confetti doubling up as super cute wedding decorations!

For a vintage themed wedding, how about a lovely leather suitcase full of confetti ready to be scooped up by passing guests as they leave to greet the Bride and Groom outside. Another simple but really effective wedding idea, sure to impress the friends and family.

Wedding Confetti from Flingers Party Shop

At Flingers we have a wide range of confetti designs perfect for any wedding you’ll be attending this year. Or if you’re the Bride or Groom, perfect for these confetti cone ideas or for scattering across the dining tables to add a little sparkle to your venue. All our confetti stock is available to purchase in store or online, where delivery starts from as little as £1.40!

However, if you are looking for something with even more of the wow-factor check out our Wedding Party Cannons. Brand new, just in time for the wedding season to begin. From just £1.59, these cannon poppers are filled with party streamers, ready to pop with just a twist of the wrist! These tubes pack a real punch and are great for creating a party atmosphere, especially if you place one or more on each table and get all the guests to release at once!!

Will you be throwing confetti at the next wedding you attend?