Creative face masks – for kids, designed by kids

We haven’t done something really arty and specific (as opposed to whatever they usually draw in their free time) in quite awhile – and obviously I haven’t blogged about working on art projects for even longer!

The creative face mask design competition entitled “I have the POWER” organised by Xepa-Soul Pattinson (“Xepa^SP”) and ADEZIO Allergy & Cold Relief offered an opportunity for us to get creative together as a family and the mention of doing up face masks immediately caught the kids’ attention and captured their interest.

In light of the impending haze and the outbreak of respiratory diseases during this hot and dry period, I thought it was a good time to be spreading the message (and not germs!) that everyone – even kids, can play a pivotal role in fighting against allergy, cough and cold.

“Together we have the power” aims to promote simple personal hygiene practices such as wearing a face mask when down with cold or cough, avoid sharing of food and remembering to wash hands regularly.

It is definitely an excellent family bonding activity – as it was in my home, as I will share more about with you!

Now that the kids are older, we brainstormed together what designs they think would look nice on the face masks. We googled for interesting examples but nothing really caught our eye so we had to rely on our own creative juices.

Getting ready to work on their masks!

We eventually decided to go with an animal mask for my girl while my boy would do a Captain America related one (even though technically, he doesn’t qualify for the competition as the competition is only open to ages 6-12). It was a family affair so everyone gets involved, right? Ultimately, it’s the message that we wanted to inculcate in our children so that they would understand the importance of wearing face masks when they are ill. And of course, it’s the process of the art that matters for kids. 🙂

We went shopping for our props to go with the masks to make it even more fun-filled – we found (sparkly!) cat-ears hairbands at H&M (so we decided on making a cat mask) and a Captain America shield at Toys ‘R’ Us to go with my the Captain America theme for my boy’s.

So first, I traced out the mask (you can download the copy from this link) on rough paper and trimmed the lower portion to fit my children’s faces as it was obviously too large for them. Then we sketched the design on our draft copy and adjusted the details to fit the kids’ faces.

We had to adjust the cat features upwards to suit my girl’s face and obviously, somebody else couldn’t wait to work on his mask.

After the draft was completed, my girl drew the design on the actual mask:

Although Captain America usually wears his mask with the “A” on his head, my little Captain America fan will wear his “A” on his face mask. I used good quality washi tape (I used 3M) to make an “A” on his mask and his task was to colour the mask blue in various shades of blue.

The kids busied themselves with colouring their masks with colour pencils:

And when the colouring was done, I removed the washi tape and there we have a nice “A” without fuss! (That’s why using a good quality washi tape is important – or else the tape would peel off together with the mask and ruin the mask).

I had to help fill some gaps of course for my little boy.

While my girl was still busy decorating her mask, my little one was all revved up to put on his mask so I punched the holes and strung the rubber bands through:

You can tell he’s a Captain America fan, right?

Attempting a serious look

After my girl was done with hers, she decided that she wanted to be on her fours like a cat to follow through with the theme of her mask and I thought that was a great idea:

Close up of how I looped the rubber bands gently on the ears – no pressure or pain at all

So that’s it, here are the kids’ masks:

They enjoyed role playing with their masks for awhile and of course, since these aren’t meant to be worn for prolonged periods of time as a face mask, their soft toys inherited those face masks in their pretend play.

Interested to participate in the competition? Simply follow the few steps below:

1. Like and share the competition post found on Allergy Cough and Cold Facebook page
2. Follow the link available on the competition post on Facebook to download the competition photo.
3. Design the mask together with your child and cut out the artwork.
4. Send a picture of the mask, pictures of your child wearing the mask along with the completed entry form to participation@gmail.com by 31st August 2015

The best entry wins the grand prize of Acer Iconia 8 inch HD LED Tablet (32GB internal storage with 2MP front and rear camera). There are also 20 free art classes to be won, proudly sponsored by Art Speaks Studio.

Contest is open to children residing in Singapore of age between 6 to 12. Other terms and conditions apply. For more information on the competition, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/pfgepjc.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post brought to you by Xepa-Soul Pattinson.

P.S. We really did have lots of fun coming up with the concept for the masks and shopping for our props! 🙂