How to control lines?

[saloner]

Instead of tickets for the children, I was thinking of giving each child a numbered coin that they can hold, then I will call the coin number, I am trying to find some kind of coin that is either numbered or something that I can number myself.  Anyone know of anything? Or perhaps someone has another idea to control the face painting line?  How about how to "end" the line upon closing?

[Sherry]

A sign can help.  I got this idea from Shannon Fennell.  "Face painting from 5:30 - 7:30 today.  Last face painted at 7:25."  Then they have a heads up of when you will stop painting, so they're fully aware while waiting in line that they may or may not get painted.  You might also add something like, "each face painting can take from 3 - 5 minutes.  Keep this in mind to judge your wait time."

Then as it gets closer to end time, you might count off how many more you think you can do before end time and count them off and let them know that the line is closed after this last person.  I will paint a number on the last person's hand and count my way up.  Then if anyone else appears in line have the last person let them know the line is closed.  This doesn't always work, so you may need to periodically let new people showing up that the line is closed.

I think with the numbered coin, you'd need to be sure it wasn't something you were worried about not getting back.  I could see a number of them being forgotten to be turned in.


One of the things that has worked best for me is simply asking, "who's next?"  The people in line seem to keep each other in line when you say it like that.

[MsMollie]

i always say, who's next...that way, i don't have to be in charge.....i have enough to do and they can police each other...takes all the burden off the face painter...lol

[twinkletattoos]

What about plastic poker chips or bingo chips? You could write a number on them with a sharpie.

I too have a hard time with my line. Last party I was busy for 3 hours straight I had to cut my line off.  I was doing a first birthday party for our friend's baby so my hubby was there--he ended up working with me--he was trying to help me with my line. He would ask the kids what design they wanted and he would pull the stencils for me and he kept them in order of my line. This helped me out because I could ask "Who is getting the butterfly," but he can't always come with me so I too need a better system for big events with lots of people.

[MsMollie]

I had an event Saturday and they had a parade, carnival, etc..my location wasn't the best. However, i was around all the crafters and there were alot of kids that came through. It didn't really get started good till around 10:30. I stayed busy all day till around 5...everyone started packing up. Not sure why they ended our part then because the carnival rides were open till around 11. However, they told me if I wanted to stay I could....
I kept painting till about 5:30 or 6. It's so funny how many people 'force' their kids to get face painted!..I was totally shocked. Some of these kids "did not" want their faces painted....weird . One woman wanted me to paint sponge bob on her 3 yrs. old's cheek!...Yea right!...i told her i would try, but that's takes alot more detail..anyway, i tried and that kids would not sit still. We finally gave up.....stupid woman.

Then you have to watch out for the "grabbers"....this one woman had two boys...they either had ADHD or were just brats. Not sure but she would yell at them and they kept grabbing things, they would not listen and drove me absolutely crazy! ...i was glad when they left....I probably could have sat there all night painting...as we were packing up, i had a mom come and see if she could get her kids faces done. I had already put up all my paint and brushes....! duh, was she blind?

All in all, it was a great day but I was dead tired by the time I got home....
 :

[Sherry]

I hear ya!  I had 2 events yesterday.  A first!  At the first, my method of saying, "who's next?" was not working.  They'd hired 3 artists, so instead of one line, people started forming many mini lines or crowds around each artist.  It was really confusing and then the person who hired me asked for us to give preference to their employees... I sure wish I'd known that ahead of time and I could have made up signs.  Instead I ended up with a bunch of angry people.  I tried to fix that, by forming a regular line and a quick line.  This didn't work, because after each person I painted, I'd turn around and the line I'd formed would be non existent... this happened repeatedly.  I'm really considering buying a sign that says, "The line starts here" for these type of events.

The next event I went to, was like your experience Mollie.  Parents with unbehaved kids.  You can see them coming, because the whole time they're standing in your line, they're wreaking havoc, so when it's finally their turn, you know it's not going to be good.  One mom said he wanted Spiderman, as soon as I move toward him, he's flinching, pulling away and warding me off.  After him and her negotiate over this for a while, he finally says he wants Spiderman on his hand.  It takes a long, uncomfortable time to pull this off, because he's constantly wiggling and pulling away.  I pull it off!  Success!  The kids happy, but mom's not.  She came back and realized I did it on his hand instead of his face and tells me to paint the cheek art Spiderman on his cheek.  I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me?  There's a long line and this kid is so excessively hard to paint.  I told them, I could only do one per child and  hoped she didn't get angry.

They leave and toward the end of the event, guess who's back in my chair?  The Spiderman kid.  Now he wants the full face Spiderman.  Now, that he realizes I'm not going to beg and plead with him to let me paint his face, he's more willing, but still pulls away and wiggles constantly.  I muddle my way through it.  Thank goodness these are in the minority! 

[MandiIlene]

I try to set up myself and table in such a way that the line is easily formed next to it. If I am doing a private party with kids who want to enjoy other activities while waiting on the face paint, I have them hold out their hands and paint the number on their hands. When new kids arrive, they get a number and don't have to sit and wait. I can usually find a parent or the kids who are leaving my chair to find the next few numbers to come over, I usually keep one kid in the chair and two on deck for this, so that I am not wasting time finding them.

Mandi

[MsMollie]

I know what you mean Sherry...Gee, i have never seen so many people addicted to having their kids faces painted..one woman even clamped down on her kid and tried to shackle him to her so i could paint on him!...i was shocked. Not only was the kid fighting, but when they do that(hold them down) you feel bad for the child, and if they accidently get loose, you run the risk of poking them in the eye with the brush!....i almost got the spong bob kid right in the eye when he abruptly moved his head....

I finally told the mom, "i'm sorry sweetie, but he isn't cooperating and I'm not going to run the risk of stabbing him in the eye with the brush"...she was fine and left. I would rather lose a few dollars than hurt a child because of a stupid decision a parent makes....

[Sherry]

I finally had to start telling people, I can only paint them if they're willing.  They have to be willing.  I'm starting to wonder if I should make up a sign that says just that.  I know some artists have a policy of not painting children 3 and under, but I really don't mind painting little ones if they're willing and will sit for it, so I've never implemented that policy.  There really are little bitty ones that will sit perfectly still and let you paint them and they're so happy to get to join in!  I love that.  But I think the majority of ones that are that young are a bit afraid.

[reginanewsum]

If I see a child starting to shed a tear, or clinging onto mom or dad, when it is their turn, I offer a design on the top of the hand, like a flower, happy face, or the good old Elmo!  If they still seem to be afraid, I just tell the adult, that this is not going to work, maybe at an other event, yes the parents seem to be the one getting it done, here is a pic of a 6 month old girl, the mom told me to paint her like the other kids at the party, A FULL FACE TIGER! I said  ahhhh no mam, I won't do that!  She insisted, ahhhh no mam, she said, well I WANT SOME THING ON HER! So I offered a real quick rose design, the little angel was sleeping in the first place, mom started to take her out of her carry thing and I said NO leave her in it, I can do it from there, swipe swipe paint paint and done, even added a little detailz to it!  The baby never woke up at all! The next picture he is 8 months old, same party, back to back babies, mom wanted the same thing, he set so still never blinked and eye, never cried, well he kind of looked frozen!  But these two pictures are my prize pictures for baby pics, until I paint my Hannah of course!  Ahhhh maybe today, mom goes back to work today, and I have Hannah until 8pm tonight!  Hmmm gives me an idea!  Shhhhhh Hannah don't tell on grandma ok!