Our 2019 Party Theme Revealed! ...And It *MIGHT* Remind You Of Something

Since John and I got so carried away with our Ghostbusters Halloween we're pretty far behind on our Christmas party, which we host in early December. 

Yep, we've only got a month to go. EVERYBODY PANIC.

Not only that, we've decided we're not doing a Harry Potter theme this year. (I KNOW WHAT) I'm sure we'll return to the Wizarding World in the future, but I wanted to try a different fandom this year, just to shake things up and give myself some new crafting options.

Are you ready for this?

[DEEP BREATH]

Here we go:

Aww yeeeeeah.

 If you've been with me a while then this is no surprise; I've been talking about a Labyrinth Christmas tree for years. 

The problem with such an obscure theme, of course, is that we have to make everything from scratch. Unlike Harry Potter, you can't run to the mall and pick up ready-made stockings or ornaments. (Plus do you know how expensive fake peaches are? REALLY DARN EXPENSIVE.)

Still, I'm trying to approach this year's party with a little more silliness and a lot less perfectionism, and just focus on doing what we can in a month while still having fun with it. Our Halloween builds reminded me just how fun crafting can be when you have zero expectations or pressures, so fingers crossed this new theme will help me realize I don't have to keep out-doing myself every year.

Plus, c'mon. A Labyrinth themed Christmas party? That's just BEGGING to be ridiculous.

So yes, we're absolutely turning our bathroom into the Bog of Eternal Stench, and we'll have a goblin-themed Christmas tree decorated with tiny pieces of armor and chicken feathers, and there will hopefully be games like "Pin The Leg On The Firey." Anything that makes me and John laugh is up for consideration, so if you have an idea, tell me in the comments!

We've started making some iconic elements from the Labyrinth, so let me walk you through some of our early failures and successes.

First, the failure:

It was around this point that I realized I'd made a tinfoil Sonny Eclipse:

Ha! Whoops.

I kept plugging away, though:

 Hopefully you recognize him more now?

Then my friend Karen came over and helped me start covering him in clay.

 I decided to try out Model Magic clay, since I'd heard good things, but this was a huge mistake. It doesn't blend very well, and it's impossible to carve since it has a rubbery foam texture.

 After a few hours of refining and smoothing Karen & I got it to look like this:

 .. which isn't terrible, but there were some definite problems with my ear placement, and the muzzle. Mostly, though, it was just still very lumpy.

Then I read online that the Model Magic was going to crack, and crack very badly. 

Drat.

The issue is this: any air dry clay will crack if applied over a rigid internal structure like tin foil. And sure enough, by the next day deep cracks were appearing all over the knocker's face.

So John and I consulted a ton of people, both online and at our local Reynolds Supply, and have started over with a new game plan:

 

 John projected the knocker to scale on pink insulation foam, and then we traced and cut out 3 layers to build up the internal structure. This should cut down on the amount of clay I'll need to finish it off.

After this I'll be using Foam Mo, another foam-like clay that I'm *told* will not crack, because it stays extra flexible after it dries.

If that doesn't work, then my Plan C is to go back to an epoxy dough. The dough is SUPER soft and terrible for sculpting, though, so I'm hoping the Foam Mo comes through. I'll keep you guys posted in my Stories!

 Now on to some successes:

 John and I've each had our own projects this week - can you already guess what they are?

 

John's is a variation on the cannonball goblin. He used Styrofoam balls, craft foam, and pink insulation foam to form the spikes, so it's all super light.

 Here's the screen-accurate version of the cannon ball goblin on the right (which I took at the Labyrinth exhibit in Atlanta), and an art doll version on the left:

 I've always thought this guy would be a hilarious Christmas tree topper, so John's version has a festive make-over in gold, with red-and-white stripes for the arms. (Which is also reminiscent of Toby, of course!)

The cute little legs:

 These are wire covered in tin foil, covered in craft foam armor. The feet are more insulation foam.

John primed everything black, then I used silver and gold Rub N' Buff to "paint" everything:

All of the rivets are googly eyes.

John's carved out a section in the butt (which is how this sits flat) where the tree branch will go. Originally we were going to drill this little guy full of holes and put a strand of LED lights inside him, but I'm not sure either of us has the heart to do that now, ha. So maybe he'll just hold a strand of lights?

Here he is (mostly) finished:

I need to darken his hands up; not happy with my paint job there. Otherwise he's all done!

Until we get a tree put up for him to sit on, he's living on a high shelf in my office:

... which is SUPER adorable. I think John and I may be fighting over whose room gets to display this guy after Christmas.

Meanwhile, I'd made a bunch of my ping-pong eyeballs using my own tutorial from 2015. They go really fast if you're not adding the blood vessels!

(Oh, and needless to say, if eyeballs squick you out, better skip the rest of this post.)

John grabbed some scrap electrical wire from the garage which I hot-glued onto the eyes and then covered with tin foil:

 I made the eye stalks waaaaaay too long. Don't ask me why. I don't know.

 Luckily it was easy to cut them down to a more reasonable length later.

For the lichen base John cut an amorphous shape out of some scrap plywood, then drilled a bunch of holes in it so I could arrange my eye stalks:

 Next came the messy and time-consuming part: covering the stalks in moss! I used hot glue, and covered little sections at a time. I don't have photos of this because I was a mossy gluey mess.

When all the stalks were thoroughly mossed, we locked them in place by bending their wires around a screw on the back side of the wood, then screwing in the screw.

To make the wood sit flush on the wall, John routed out a recess in the back side for all the wires and screws. Clever, right?

 The last step was covering the wood base itself in moss, then arranging the eye stalks so they have an attentive personality about them.

 Ta-daaaa!

  I tried to make it like the 4 on the right are distracted by something on their side.
 
 With John's wooden backer it looks like the lichen is growing right on the wall, which is so dang cool.

 Plus it's so creepy it's almost adorable, right?

Er... right?

 D'awww.

 Later this will be installed on our Labyrinth brick entryway, but for now it's living above our badger art in the steampunk room:

 (Badger art by Christie Cox, who also has the CUTEST blue worm print!)

I'm pretty sure our new lichen is another piece that will be staying out after Christmas. Gotta keep an eye on the place! Or several eyes, as the case may be.

(That's one of our Wizarding World inspired speakers near the ceiling, remember when we made those?)

Our Labyrinth brick entry will also feature the blue worm - probably the ThinkGeek figure instead of the one I sculpted, since it's better. I'm also debating putting our Junk Lady there by the wall, for a cute photo op. We'll have to see if there's room!

I hope some of you are as excited about the new party theme as I am! And again, if you have any epic/crazy/funny ideas for things we should make for the party, tell me in the comments! I'm also very open to suggestions on what I should wear, since I've told our guests it can be character-inspired OR a more generic goblin or fairy, but I have no idea what to wear myself. Bonus points if it includes a masquerade mask!

Stay tuned for more Labyrinth-y goodness over the next month. 'Til then, sing it with me, now:

You remind me of the babe.

::cue dance party & baby-throwing::


*****

Oh hey, I forgot this book existed, look how sweet:

Jim Henson's Labyrinth Tales

It only has 3 short stories, but I'm told the art is all as delightful as the cover, so it's going on my wishlist. I also highly recommend the out-of-print illustrated storybook, which looks like this:

It took me nearly 2 years to find my copy on ebay, but happily for you guys, Amazon has several used options, both hardcover and soft cover! Dang, wish I'd known about that before, ha. Both books are gorgeous gifts for any Labyrinth fan.