Potter Party Spoilers: Come See What We've Made So Far!

I mentioned this before, but John and I are throwing a Potter Christmas party again this year, this time with a Fantastic Beasts spin.

I've been gleefully sharing process shots of some of our many projects over on my Instagram Stories the last few weeks, but I thought I'd compile them all into one big progress post here, you know, for posterity. So let's see how many things you can guess we're making!

I plan to turn several of these into tutorials, btw, which I'll start sharing soon. There's just too much to share all at once after the party, plus I think it's fun to ramp up the antici....

...pation.

So I hope you'll forgive the semi (and outright) spoilers.

First, some background silliness:

Learning is fun!

For those of you who judged me for having a tree up the day after Halloween: IT'S FOR WORK I PROMISE. Or at least for lots of experiments.

That's one of the best parts about starting prep so early; John and I've been trying a few things we've never seen anyone do before, so it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out WHY no one's ever done them before. You know, like piping a fog machine through your Christmas tree. [NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT.] [Although it was pretty fun 'til the smoke alarm went off.]

I really want to show you the videos I took documenting our attempts, but they include a pretty major spoiler. I promise I'll show you our hilarious smoking tree once the spoilery thing is revealed with its own tutorial, though.

Speaking of which, here are some obvious hints:

I painted these one at a time with simple craft paint and water. Tedious, but I like what a difference they made. If I were to do them again I'd go darker, though; as the feathers dried they lightened up much more than I expected.

I should mention here John is very against this post, and while proof-reading it he kept yelling out across the house: "You're showing them THAT? And this?! There won't be any surprises left!"


Oh yes, there will.

More silliness:

I haven't posted these next pics anywhere yet:

These are for two different things, btw.

Carving pink insulation foam is SO FUN. It sands & paints like a dream, and I can't wait to figure out more stuff to make with it.

 I couldn't find any graphics I really liked for Giggle Water, so I had to grit my teeth and make my own. These are all WIPs; the final is a tiny bit better:

Back to our largest construction project (so far): 

John built this piece to slide right over our existing media cabinet, so that's one less thing we have to move for the party. He did the building, I did the painting.

I like how some people thought the Jawa was reflected in "the mirror."

You guys often tell me you want to see my crafty screw-ups, too, so here's one:

I grabbed a big box of air-dry clay, didn't read the directions, and proceeded to sculpt it on top of aluminum foil. Turns out the clay shrinks a lot, so the next day poor Oscar's head cracked allllll over. (That photo shows the first of many, ha.) That's on top of a sculpt I already wasn't crazy about.

We salvaged most of it with putty and paint, but this is one of those projects that really needs a complete do-over, if I have the time and motivation later.

Speaking of paint, we decided to REALLY stretch ourselves with some magical new wall art. How'd we do? Can you tell what this is?

I call it, "The Drowsy Goblin." :D

This year John and I discovered Spirit Halloween clearances out the whole store for two days before closing, so everything left was half off. It was like Geek Christmas, and I loaded up on all kinds of goodies, including this:

This was labeled a "scarecrow hat," but after looking at the official Sorting Hats you can buy, I'm convinced it uses the exact same sewing pattern & fabric; they just leave the face molding & wrinkles off. IT'S THAT PERFECT. It even has the same patches in a few places!

Still not quite done here, but close. So far this is one of the two or three things I'm happiest with, and it took the least amount of time, effort, & money! I'll walk you through the whole process in a tutorial soon. (In the meantime, keep your eyes open for clearanced-out Scarecrow Hats!)

Right, I think that's everything I've hinted at online so far! Despite what John said there's still plenty left; I have to keep SOME surprises up my sleeve. Can't wait to show you all more as the Big Day gets closer!