Add audience excitement and drama to your next performance by creating theme looks to enhance the feel and expression of your numbers character. Children especially love the fantasy! Here are a few favorite character themes to help your recital have true show appeal.

Fantasy Fairy The look: Whimsical twinkling fairies. The perfect theme for soft, sweet, pastel costuming.

Hair: Up in a bun, with a soft side part. Rhinestones scattered through the hair to catch light and delicate, lilac orchids at the crown. Tip: Buy imitation flowers at the local craft store. Pop off flower form plastic stem. Push a bobby pin around base of the flower and secure around bun.

Arch and Extend Brows: This gives a polished frame to the eyes.

Define: Set lid and define eyes using dark plum eye shadow. Blend halfway across lid and finish just above crease, parallel to the end of eyebrows.

Warm and balance: Create balance and warmth to eyes with pink/burgundy eye shadow applied just above crease, three quarters of the way across eye bone.

Highlight: Create sparkling eyes with white shimmery silver shadow under brow, across inner half of eyelid and at inner corner of eyes.

Line: With pointy brush wet with water or eyeliner sealer, stir onto plum shadow and line outer half of upper lid and outer half of lower lid. To keep eyes looking wide open, do not join the lines at the outer corners of the eye. Use the white eye pencil between the two lines at the outer eye corners. Clean up under eyes.

Even out skin: Use foundation and concealer and set with face powder.

Natural false lashes: Cut to fit and apply natural length false lashes. Tip: The inner half of a false lash looks the most subtle on. Apply one coat of mascara to top and bottom lashes.

Contour: Define cheekbones and nose line with a pink/brown cheek color.

Flush: Sweep a bright pink cheek color onto the apples of the cheek.

Highlight: Enhance cheekbone with a silvery shimmer powder.

Line lips: Define lips using a pink/brown lip pencil. Apply over most of lip, leaving the inner lip free of lip pencil.

Brighten lips: Use creamy lipstick in a sparkling medium pink shade.

Glitter: Create fantasy with twinkles from pastel/opal glitter. Seal onto cheek bones, eyelids and lips. Spay hair and body with glitter spray to add twinkle and magic.

The Cat The Look: For purr-fectly beautiful cat makeup the most important tool is your imagination. I did a Tiger cat by adding yellow facepaint. For a lion face, keep it to three colors, and for a leopard, try adding spots.

Tools: Stage pigmented eye shadow colors used wet or soft colored face/eye pencils or grease paint in white, red/orange, yellow, brown and black.

Hair: Create ears by taking the front portion of hair parted down the middle and separate into two sections. Twist each section around into a circle and run the tip through the center so it stands straight up. Use bobby pins to secure.

Even out skin: Apply foundation over face and onto throat. Conceal under eyes to lighten dark circles.

Highlight: Use white a pencil down center of nose, under brows, around upper lip (to create a muzzle), onto chin and high on cheekbones.

Define: Focus on features with black pencil or wet/dry shadow cake. Apply to brows sweeping up to create stripes, line into cat eyes, define tip of nose down to center of where lips begi and down onto chin. Lastly add spots for whiskers (a liquid liner is great for whiskers, too).

Set foundation and lids: with sheer face powder.

Contour eyes: with dark brown shadow through crease.

Lift and warm eyes: with red/brown shadow on eye bone.

Highlight: Use gold/yellow shadow on inner lid and under brow.

Apply: false lashes and one coat of mascara to top and bottom lashes.

Create stripes: with alternating yellow, brown, and red/orange in between black and white lines from brow.

Contour cheeks: with dark brown cheek color and add a few soft black and brown stripes for definition.

Highlight: inner eye corners between liner with white pencil.

Define: nose with brown cheek color or brown pencil blended in. Lips: should look small and thin. Apply brown or black pencil onto inner lip and smudge in.

Enhance: lips with red brown lipstick.The key is to layer colors like stripes on a cats coat. The more layers that show the more the colors look like fur.

Raggedy Anne and Andy: This is a fast easy look to do. What really pulls together this look is the wigs. See modedion.com for all wigs you need to help create your favorite themes.

Apply: liquid foundation over entire face to create a doll-like smooth even surface to skin. Be sure to cover lips completely with foundation. Set with face powder.

Lips: Using a black eye liner or black eye shadow on a wet liner brush color in inside of lips sweeping up at sides to create a smile. A scoop up at the ends makes the mouth smile. For lip color, use a red lipstick only at the very center of the upper and lower lips.

Line: eyebrows thin and short with same black liner and along upper and lower lash line keeping eyes rounded with no liner extensions. The eyes should look small and round like buttons.

Use: a white eye pencil to trace just above black eyeliner to create a halo effect around the black.

Make: little drawn-on lash lines below eyes. Don't do too many as these need to look painted on a doll.

Blush: Dot red cheek color just at cheek apples next to the rounds of the smile. Apply this strong so it looks painted on.

Mermaid Mermaids glisten!

Use: a shiny white/silver or white/gold face powder on eyelids, cheekbones and chest.

Apply: pink/peach tone cheek color for a slight flush to cheeks and through eye crease up onto eye bone.

Add: shimmery pink lip-gloss to bring out lips.

Add: mascara to help eyes be seen or even false lashes for a larger stage.

Lastly: spray hair and body with glitter spray.

For shimmer, glitter, false lashes, stage makeup kits, wigs and training, visit modedion.com, your full stage beauty resource.