It’s
always useful to have a range of tools to help you put on your make-up in the
morning, but sometimes things start accumulating. Before you know it, you have more
make-up and equipment than your bathroom shelves can carry. Applicator brushes
are particularly troublesome – taking up lots of precious storage space.
Luckily,
if you’ve got kids around these brushes can make a fun craft project for little
ones, helping you clear a bit of space and giving them something creative to
do. With a bit of paint and some googly eyes your everyday make-up brush can
become a fun, crazy-haired character – all you need to know is how to clean
makeup brushes! If you have a few different brushes you can make a whole family.
Here’s how:
1.
Start by working out which brushes you
actually use on a regular basis and those that have sat at the back of your
cupboard for months. Give those you’ve chosen to ‘up-cycle’ a thorough clean.
No one wants to get make-up all over them while doing a craft project! There
are plenty of guides on how to clean makeup brushes
online. Make sure to avoid products that might damage the stem or head.
2.
Right, time for some craft: To create
your fun little brush-haired people start by getting some paints that will
cover the existing surface of the handle. As they’re likely to be plastic or
wood, you will need to choose the type of paint carefully. Go for bright
colors to make it fun.
3.
Use a top layer of paints to draw different
outfits on the handles. Tuxedos, dresses, ties, dungarees – the options are
endless, you just have to work out how best to represent them on the little handle.
It can be a challenge, but that’s half the fun. If you have sparkly
nail-varnish to hand you can even use it to give your little guys some glitz.
4.
Now get your googly eyes; these go on the
handle directly below the bristles. This section is usually covered in metal or
another material to help secure the bristles in place, so use it as a face. To
attach the eyes you’ll need some strong glue – just be careful not to get it on
your fingers or other surfaces, and supervise children at all times.
5.
Next add some arms. These can be made
from a whole host of different materials including paper, pipe cleaners, thin
cardboard, string, or wire, depending on what you have to hand and how fixed
you want the arms to be. Secure them in place with more glue or discrete pieces
of sticky tape.
6.
Voila: a fun little guy with exciting
bristle hair! Get creative and give them different hairstyles by creating tiny
braids, cutting a Mohican, or coloring some strands with corrector fluid. Once
you’ve done a few of them, the kids will have a little community on their hands.
Older children could even create brush people unsupervised after the first
batch, once they know how to clean makeup brushes – although you may want to
hide the brushes you don’t want transformed! Don’t worry if you’ve got lots of
different shapes and sizes, that will just make the group more fun to play
with: you could even create a family. Enjoy!
