Horcrux Hunt - Escape Room Style Party: Weekend Progress

This weekend I chipped away at a few more party projects. I am always super productive during football season. 😋

The Three Broomsticks sign is progressing, with the sign cut out. Priming and painting are next!

In addition to the sign, I've been working on a lot of digital files. While I have found lots of great content at the RPF, many props and paper goods need to be made specifically for the party. Photos will be posted post-party, to not give away any hints in advance to the attendees. 😉

Finally, I purchased an Enigma 37 from Creative Crafthouse 'for the party'... Okay, for fun. Because it is awesome. His shop has some fantastic wooden puzzles, games and toys, I highly recommend checking it out.  But here is the Enigma 37 machine below. 

And if you're curious how it works, he made a short YouTube video of how to use it, HERE.

Horcrux Hunt - Escape Room Style Party... Planning in Progress... !

After the "Very Harry Birthday" this summer, we had several of our adult friends request that we invite *them* over to have Harry fun. Husband and I discussed throwing an adult-only Harry party, and how we could give it an adult 'slant' - I wasn't sure how many adults would be on board with a piñata and potions class. 😋

We have decided to throw a 'Horcrux Hunt' Halloween party. Planning is underway, crafting an escape-room-style party- full of puzzles, blacklight hidden clues, and codes to break. We have been filling our evenings with crafting and planning, on top of the back-to-school schedule! ... SO... I'll be posting the periodic process sneak-peek photos, but full details won't be given until after the party!

Current project: Three Broomsticks Sign! 

We are making the downstairs bar into the Three Broomsticks for the party. I have sketched out the sign design onto a piece of foam, and will be cutting it out this weekend. I purchased a new foam cutting tool, so I'm excited to put it to use. No more Xacto blade cutting and jagged edges to even out! Painting and lettering to follow...

A Monster in Paris Party

Little Tomato became enamored by the French film "A Monster in Paris" before her eighth birthday. We initially intended the birthday party to be an outdoor movie, but it doesn't get dark early enough during the summer for an outdoor movie for kids that age.

Plan B was to set up the outdoor screen on the deck, where it could be dark enough to see the screen... but the stagnant heat of the week lead us to Plan C: Inside. 

If you haven't seen this movie with your kids, it is a fantastic film. It is a 3D-animated film set in Paris. The movie has been dubbed in English, and it was done very well with the originalVanessa Paradis singing and voicing her role in the English dub as well. It is set in 1910 Paris and a loosely interpreted Phantom of the Opera story. The music is spectacular. 

We held our movie night indoors, setting up the outdoor screen in the dining room, which *just* fit. We set up an inflatable pool and lined it with cushions and sheets for the girls to use as seating. It also had the added benefit of corralling rogue popcorn and sticky candy inside an easily wipeable container. 

This was the simplest party I've planned. With the movie, we set up a small table of candy and drinks and had the popcorn machine fired up. 

The movie has a few scenes with giant sunflowers, so we had Whisk & Measure make these fantastic sunflower cupcakes in place of a cake, which were easier to eat in a the pool than slices of cake. 😋

Finally, we made bracelets with Eiffel Tower charms for the girls as a memento of the movie that they could take home in a drawstring "Paris" bag. Little Tomato had a lot of fun choosing the colors (pink & purple) and making them for her friends. 

A Country Fair Party

When Little Tomato started Kindergarten, we told her she could choose her own party theme for her birthday. This was the first year that she had classmates and transitioned from having a family party (with a couple of friends) to a 'friend party.'

I was really intrigued to hear what she would pick. I was fully expecting a trademarked (read: Disney) theme, but she REALLY surprised me when she told us that she wanted a Country Fair party.  Now... we live on a farm near Husband's family. Little Tomato has grown up taking combine rides with Papa in the fields, visiting the neighbor's baby calves, and riding Uncle Bob's horses. But she goes to school by Husband's office, which is 25 miles away in the city. So while she is a country girl at heart, all of her classmates have very little experience with a farm, which made it even more fun for the kids.

Country Fair Invitations:

 The invitation was wrapped with tickets to give it a little pizzaz.

A Beauty & The Beast "Be Our Guest" Tea Party

Beauty and the Beast was my favorite Disney movie when I was little. The book nerd in me connected with Belle, and I loved the music.

When we finally took Little Tomato to Disney, she was enamored with Belle. She asked for a Beauty and the Beast birthday party and so I put together a fun Belle themed tea party for the girls. 

The invitation was printed onto parchment paper and made into a scroll. This was hand delivered to each of the girls. It was rolled up and the ribbon was tied into a bow. I kept a copy to display at the party.

It reads, "Ma chere Mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you to Be Our Guest for Little Tomato's Birthday Tea Party."

The Very Harry Details: Miscellaneous Projects

This is the final post for our Very Harry Birthday party. To see the complete party:

"Part 5: Honeydukes" can be found HERE.
"Part 4: Class Lessons & the Troll in the Dungeon" can be found HERE.
"Part 3: Great Hall Sorting Ceremony" can be found HERE
"Part 2: Diagon Alley" can be found HERE.
"Part 1: Invitations & the Entry to Platform 9-3/4" can be found HERE.

In addition to the Platform 9-3/4 brick wall, Bertie Botts display, signage, scarves, and wands, we did several other little miscellaneous craft projects throughout the year for our party. I have round them all up into this single post. 

Potion Bottles

Throughout the year, we solicited friends for any empty unique bottles and received several old liquor, perfume & bath bottles. I found a lot of great free printable labels online and printed out several on regular printer paper. 

We used matte Mod Podge to affix the labels to the bottles, and coated the whole bottle with the Mod Podge to give it a more cloudy, old & dirty look. This was a particular favorite project for Husband and Little Tomato.

Each bottle was filled with miscellaneous items, based on the label's ingredient. The box below holds the ingredients we used for our Growth Potion for our Potions Class. 

We made decorative potion bottles with labels and then included little jars & vials with the actual active ingredients the kids would use. 

As an example of bottle filler, we used the following:

Leech Juice: orange food coloring in water

Troll Bogeys: green slime  (white glue + liquid starch + green food coloring)

Bone Powder: confectioner's sugar

Warewolf Hair: We have dogs. So... I literally just grabbed a clump of hair from our vacuum cleaner canister. Yes, it is totally disgusting, but as the bottle is sealed and a dark brown glass, it looks quite authentic and no one is the wiser (you know, except that I just confessed what is in it...)

Dragon Blood: red food coloring in water

Course Books & Potion Class Experiment

For the Course Book I purchased the Standard Book of Spells PDF download from Geeks & Dragons on Etsy for the spell portion. I created my own Magical Drafts & Potions book, and made a cover to combine the two books into a single course book for the girls to take home. I printed the pages onto parchment paper, two pages to a sheet and printed front & back. I then assembled the books with electrical tape & clear duct tape to bind the edge. I wasn't about to hand-bind 13 books and I don't like how pages turn when using staples... I have some mild OCD tendencies... 😋

The front cover had an area to write in their names, which they were very eager to fill in and claim it as their own.

For the potion experiment that we performed during the party, I created a separate page, which we handed out to the girls as they walked into class. I assumed that the tables would get sticky and gross,  and didn't want their books to get ruined. It was a good call. 

The potions in the course book are completely fictional, with no actual ingredient 'key'. The Growth Potion we did in the class was an actual science experiment, and so each ingredient was either an active (ex. vinegar = leech juice) or inactive & fun (ex. clippings from faux fur fabric = wolf hair) ingredient.

Monster Book of Monsters

For this project, I purchased a 'scrap' of faux fur fabric from the craft store end-of-bolt bin. It was actually quite a good size for a scrap. I found a 'fake book box' in a clearance bin - the kind that is made of a decorative rigid cardboard-y material made to look like a book, but actually a box. They are typically used as decorations or maybe photo storage...? From there, I bought a bag of doll/craft eyes and set to work. 

Honestly, this was one of the faster projects I completed, which was finished in the length of a movie. I hot glued the fur fabric to the box, leaving a nice long excess fabric overhang. Then I stuffed some fiberfill into the top to give the 'face' some dimension, and hot glued around this lump to keep it's shape, so it wouldn't settle and flatten. I hot glued the eyes to the face, and trimmed up the overhang into the 'finger-y' face features. I used some oven-bake clay that we got for Christmas to mold the gums & teeth and then glued them to the face.

 Bowtruckle

This was also oven bake clay. I used some floral wire to give the tiny frame some structure. Due to the long & thin structure of the bowtruckle, it was a nightmare to get the clay to not break or expose the wire. And getting it to hold a strong enough shape to lay down to bake in the oven was also a challenge. It turned out well enough. Once it was baked, I hot-glued some leaves to the head, and then lightly ran the hot glue gun down the body to give it some bark-like texture. 

Gringotts Gold Bags

I purchased some inexpensive burlap mini drawstring bags and used iron-on transfer paper to apply the Gringotts logo and filled them with plastic 'gold' coins. These bags were stuffed into the troll piñata, so each of the kids received a bag of gold when the troll was defeated. The bags of coins were returned to me at the end of the party when they 'purchased' their Honeydukes candy.

Diagon Alley Books 

For the books that were featured in Diagon Alley, I found the free downloads of the book covers on the RPF and Mod Podged them onto old books that a friend had donated to the cause.  The Gilderoy Lockhart photo was found online and printed onto cardstock and I threw it into a frame for the party. 

The feather quills that are shown below next to the course books were made with a white feather that is duct taped to a cheap ballpoint pen (with white duct tape). 

It is amazing how many projects we completed over the course of 10 months! Little Tomato is already excited to 'move on to book 2' and work on additional crafts. We already have baby mandrakes underway.... 

With all of these decorations on hand, I see many future parties in store. The great thing about the Harry Potter theme is that it will also make for great Halloween fun. 😊

Harry Signage Roundup

To see the complete party:

"Part 5: Honeydukes" can be found HERE.
"Part 4: Class Lessons & the Troll in the Dungeon" can be found HERE.
"Part 3: Great Hall Sorting Ceremony" can be found HERE
"Part 2: Diagon Alley" can be found HERE.
"Part 1: Invitations & the Entry to Platform 9-3/4" can be found HERE.

Most of the party signage was made on insulation foam. The only signage made in wood was the exterior signpost signage. Insulation foam is easier to cut, more cost effective, and more lightweight for the size. Different methods were used on each, so I'm including some process photos and details for several of the signs below...

How to Make A Bertie Botts Display

We have made it a point in recent years to make our family Christmas gifts more 'experiences' than things. So for Christmas last year we bought tickets to spend a weekend at Universal Studios in January.

At this point in the calendar, we had several of the Harry Potter crafts for the Very Harry Birthday underway. We had made wands, signs, potion bottles, and were midway into scarves.

I knew that I wanted to do something more visually fun for our "Honeydukes" than glass jars sitting on a table, so I made the large Honeydukes sign... but I still felt that it wasn't quite "there" yet.

When we walked into Honeydukes at the Wizarding World in January and I saw the Bertie Botts display shelf, I knew THAT was what I wanted to do.

The Cupboard Under the Stairs Tour

We live in the Midwest, which is 'tornado alley' in the United States. Thus, most houses have basements. We finished part of our basement this past year, and took the opportunity to install carpet into the storage area under our stairs to make a reading nook for Little Tomato.

Now... if your child is a Harry Potter fan and you're making a reading nook under the stairs, it *needs* to be a Cupboard Under the Stairs!

The photo quality is not great. I was lazy and used my phone to take photos, and this is a basement cupboard under the stairs... so the light quality isn't optimal either.

A Very Harry Invitation

This post is less tutorial and more 'details on the invitations' for the Very Harry Party.

The invitations for the party were Hogwarts acceptance letters. I used a basic font and included the Hogwarts crest on the top of the page and Professor McGonagall's signature which can be easily found on the internet. I also printed the Platform 9-3/4 tickets onto parchment paper, the ticket graphic was also found with a cursory internet image search.

Invitations & tickets were printed on parchment paper.

I purchased basic Kraft paper envelopes and printed the miscellaneous owl imagery onto them.  As I intended to hand-deliver the invitations, I used the Hogwarts crest in the 'return address' area of the envelope and used unofficial owl stamp graphics on the stamp portion of the envelope. 

I used a fountain pen to write the girl's names and addresses onto the envelopes, so I also printed the ink drops onto the envelopes to give it more of an authentic 'quill pen was used' feel... but to be honest, I just wanted to add something in this corner to visually balance the envelope a little better.

The original Harry acceptance letter was addressed to "Mr. H. Potter", so I addressed the letters to Ms. [First Letter of first name] [Last Name]... after mistakingly writing out MRS. 

Whoops... children definitely aren't MRS. 😣

I also purchased the Hogwarts seal and wax sealed the envelopes.

PLEASE NOTE that if you use a wax seal and intend to send your invites via traditional post... I've read mixed reviews on this. The machines the USPS uses will sometimes flatten or completely destroy wax seals. You can ask for them to be 'hand cancelled' but this will very likely come with an additional fee. Before spending the time and $$ to apply wax seals, I recommend verifying that you don't have to pay additional postage or put your wax seal on an interior envelope. The Hogwarts seal, in particular has LOTS of detail, which will be easily lost when flattened.

A quick tip on applying a wax seal: Once you place your wax seal, press firmly and hold the seal in place for a few seconds to allow the wax to cool. If you try to remove a seal too quickly, before the wax has a chance to solidify a bit, you will end up with some of the wax coming away with the seal and your wax impression will be sloppy and incomplete.

Finally, the invitiations were attached to a white balloon. I drew an owl on each balloon with a black permanent marker and attached the balloon to the envelope with bakers twine.

Because I'm a bit ridiculous, I drew a different owl on each balloon and let Little Tomato help pick the owl to match each of her friends.

We hand delivered the invitations to each of her friends. Many of them were home, but for those that weren't, they received a cute little owl on their porch when they got home.

Owl post delivered!