Deck The Halls With Balls Of Bowie: Our Labyrinth Christmas Party Update

"How you turn my world, you precious thing PARTY. 

"You starve and near exhaust me."

Well, one out of two, anyway.

Soooo... hi!

As the countdown to our Labyrinth party ticks down John and I are swinging wildly from the depths of despair ("NEVER AGAIN") to the highest levels of giggle-fueled inspiration. ("Wait! The 'Toby Toss' needs CRASH HELMETS!")

Needless to say, this party is going to be completely ridiculous. 

Here comes a whole slew of props and projects, in no particular order.

(Fair warning: there are a LOT of double entendres coming with this party. We've decided to embrace them for maximum hilarity - so if ball jokes offend you, BEWARE, AND GO NO FURTHER.)

The last knocker sculpt I showed you got scrapped entirely; the Model Magic was a VERY bad call, and cracked all over. Not to mention it's not a good choice for sculpting fine details.

So I started again with these pink insulation foam layers, layering them up with tin foil:

(How's that for nightmare fuel?)

Then my friend Karen helped me again to sculpt a whole new face out of cheap air-dry clay:

This clay was so soft and easy to work with that it made a world of difference:

 

 The trick was to keep the clay wet, so it wouldn't dry out and crack. We spent 2 nights refining it, then immediately handed it over to John to make a brush-on silicone mold:

 

John then filled the mold by pressing in epoxy dough, which is extra soft and squishy but dries rock hard. 

(Must. Not. Make. Ball jokes.)

We made some rookie mistakes with our sculpt, like keeping the eye cavities WAY too deep, so unfortunately John had to destroy the mold later to get the cast out - and then the cast had several cracks. We were still able to salvage it, though:

Unfortunately this cutie has been on the back burner ever since, because it was taking SO much time and we had a million other projects to finish. If we finish everything else soon (haha SOB) then I hope to go back and finish him to hang on our front door. And even if we don't, I plan to finish him after the party, as well as make his nosy partner. I already have a wall in our steampunk room picked out to display these guys, so no way I'm abandoning them.  

We've themed our back room to the goblins' castle, so John adjusted our suit of armor to fit:

 

  That new face plate is made of craft foam - didn't he do a great job matching the finish?

 

The goblins' Christmas tree has eyes, just like the eyeball lichen, and it's decorated with weaponry, armor, and these beauties:

We're using our enormous fake fireplace again from last year's Hufflepuff Common Room, swapping out the House Crest for Jareth's throne room clock:

John made the clock using blue foam (both blue & pink insulation foam have been our go-to for almost everything this party) and made the grooves using drywall mud:

He slowly rotated the clock and used a slotted piece of cardboard to make the grooves in the spackle. Genius, right?

Then John used our leftover Model Magic to sculpt the dagger hands:

 

 The Model Magic worked great for this, since they're relatively small & simple shapes. Plus Model Magic dries as a foam, so they're incredibly lightweight and flexible.

 We used our Cricut (bless that thing) to cut the clock numbers out of craft foam, then painted and aged everything:

Amazing, right? John is so FAST with these builds, it's almost annoying. I feel like I have to overthink everything for at least a week before I even start most projects. ;p

Our clock doesn't have a pendulum because there's not enough room on the fireplace, and our numbers aren't suspended the way the screen-used ones are, but DANG does this thing look cool. I want to convert it to a working clock after the New Year so we can keep it out year-round - although actually READING a 13-hour clock will be a little tricky, ha.

We've made some other small modifications to the fireplace I'm excited to show you, but I have to keep SOME things a surprise, right?

Here's a peek at a little of the decor back there, though:

 That's one of Jareth's pendants on our color-changing potion light.

And there's one more big surprise in the Goblin Room:

AGNES!!

Yep, we brought our dear Junk Lady out of retirement, and gave her her own photo opp in the back corner. Not only is she and her junk pile decked out for the holidays, she ALSO has her own mini junk tree beside her. It's made of everything from broken toys to old boots, and it is glorious and made us laugh very much. We brought in a little ottoman and extra lighting so our guests can sit beside Agnes for a picture or selfie. (I took this before we finalized the lights, it's better now!)

Ok, Ok, I can't resist - so here she is:

"This is NOT junk!" Agnes positively radiates the holiday spirit.

(I'm debating adding some white trim to her Santa hat. Does it read as a Christmas hat as-is?)

And that, my friends, is just the Goblin Room.

I'm going to break this update into two parts, since I'm starting to realize this will take a while. We still have Sarah's (Escape) Room, The Bog of Eternal Stench, Bubble Ballroom, costumes, and NSFW party games to get through! And I want to give you time to really savor all this absurdity with me.

I'll leave you with one final piece of decoration in the Goblin Room, made from a thrift store frame, gold foil vinyl, and way too many hours with our trusty Cricut:

My hashtag lives on!

:D

Check back soon for Part 2, and remember to take time to laugh today.

*****

If you like all our crazy builds and projects and want to help us keep at it, then you can support me and John directly through Paypal! Whether it's a one-time tip or a monthly donation, every little bit helps us devote our time and talents to this blog and community, so THANK YOU.

Also I know this time of year is tight for a lot of us, so please never feel pressured to give. The fact that you're here is enough for me, and you can support us just as well by sharing my posts with your friends/followers.