Felt Play Makeup

This week in a role play area in my Kindergarten class, we have set up a 'Salon' where the children can role play the roles of hairdresser and makeup artist. It was a big hit (with both my girls and boys!) and I had many parents asking how I made it, so thought I would share it here for others to see as well. This is by no means my idea - I have see this done around the www before, but I just made the procedure up as I went. I luckily took photos of the process  - albeit not very good photos - my current apartment has horrendous lighting in the afternoon. Oh how I can not wait for a house full of natural lighting!! - so I apologise for that in advance! But I thought bad photos are better than no photos at all, right?? Or perhaps not in this case. You be the judge...

The first thing you will need to do is take a trip to your local Kmart/Red Dot/Reject Store/Big W and pick up the cheapest cosmetics you can find. Make sure the brand you choose has clear lids (much more appealing to little minds!) and remember it doesn't matter what colour you grab, as you will be discarding all of the contents. Quite often discount stores have a dollar bin or similar close the the checkout with old makeup they are trying to get rid of for a steal. Another thing you can do is keep your own empty makeup palettes to re-purpose.

Simply grab a knife and head to your sink or garbage bin and scrape out the contents of the palettes. This is super easy to do and they simply need a wipe over with a tissue or baby wipe once emptied

Chose your felt colours (I found these sheets at Spotlight for around $1 each.) The glitter sheets were an added bonus - I had planned on adding glitter to some of the colours by using glitter glue over the top, but these sheets enabled me to skip this step! You will also need fabric/craft glue, cotton tips and scissors handy at this stage.

Simply take your chosen colour and make a light indentation of the space by pressing down. You can also use a pencil to lightly trace if you feel more comfortable cutting along a line. If you have chosen palettes with more than one compartment the same size (below), be sure to use the original cut piece as a stencil so you don't have to remeasure!

Add a few dots of glue onto the bottom of the palette and smear it around with a cotton tip before it starts to dry

Place the cut out felt in place and pat it down (especially around the edge) firmly ensuring there are no air bubbles.

And here is the finished product!! How easy and inexpensive was that?
Whilst shopping for the makeup palettes, I also picked up some very cheap brushes (the bigger the better!) and makeup sponges to go with the set. Your kids (school or your own) will love playing with this set - and be prepared to be sitting in the salon chair being made-up by many little hands.

Have a great week!