DIY Hobbit Party Games! The White Oliphaunt, Tiny Tator Challenge, & Mount Doom Ring Toss

John & I made three themed games for our Hobbit party last week, and they were SO FUN I thought I'd give y'all the rundown.

First, the Mount Doom Ring Toss:



Admit it, you'd watch this crossover.




The rings were pretty hard to land, but dang this looked amazing on our back deck:

John carved the mountain from pink foam scraps, then placed it on a table covered with stiff canvas to give it more height. (Build photos here, if you're curious.) He added flame lights inside, piped in "smoke" from our fog machine, and finally aimed a black light at the whole scene from the roof:

Our Rings have invisible script that glows when taken closer to the mountain:

Hobbit Party Aftermath: Invaded By Hobbits & The Swedish Chef?!

Happy post-party Tuesday, potato friends! Last weekend was our big Hobbit Holiday: Second Christmas party, and it was everything John and I hoped for and more. EEEEEE so incredible. I'll get to some fun pics in a sec, but first, the "more" part:

We were heading for bed around 3AM the night before when our kitty Suki had some, shall we say, poop issues. Stuck poop issues. Which quickly required a 4AM emergency vet visit.

::Jack Nicholson Joker voice:: "THIS CAT NEEDS AN ENEMA."

Still cute even with stuck poop. That's my girl.

We were already exhausted and stressed, so this wasn't the best way to start Party Day, but it all came out OK in the end. (Eh? EH?) The hardest part was waiting a couple hours at the ER, then dealing with our other cat, Eva, hissing and running from Suki for the last 3 days. Suki herself is happy as a poop-free clam, though, and has been vigorously head-butting everything and everyone like a big cuddly floofball.

K, enough cat poop talk. Here comes the poop on the party!

I will never miss a chance to fangirl over my amazing friends, so let's start with a Hobbit fashion show. (The official House Tour & games report will be later.)

Starting with a bang:


Gand-ALF, y'all.

Gand-ALF WAS HERE. (The feet! Aaaa!)

Not many would bring TWO costumes to a party, but Richard went that extra mile. Here he is in comfier costume #2 with his date Autumn:


(@GrinningGeeks)

I've been featuring Autumn & Richard's cosplays for YEARS here on Epbot, btw. I finally stalked them long enough that they agreed to be our friends, so score one for internet stalking.

"Best Entrance Award" goes to our friend John, who put his own daughters in chains to be a (surprisingly festive) Black Rider, bahaha:



I took maybe 5 pictures all night, and this was one of them. I believe I chose wisely.

John also brought this:



Spoiler: it was mead.

This is (most of) our found family, btw, who we spend every major holiday with:


That's Anna and John in the back, Robyn & Christie in front. It's wild to me that we met because I took a photo of the sisters in MLP cosplay back in 2011. Just... wild.

Right, on with the fashion show!


(@MeridaAnn)


(@OneBradyLady)

We Made A Punny "Mines Of Moria" Bathroom, And We're FLUSHED WITH SUCCESS

Y'all knocked it out of the park with your suggestions for our Doors of Durin, so I thought I'd show you the winning phrase, plus take a tour of our finished guest bath.

The runners up were "Wipe, you fools!" - one of mine - and Julie's actual Gandalf quote, "Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope." Which is hysterical as a bathroom quote, but a bit too long for our door.

Kathy D was the winner with her "excrete, friend, & flush," which made us cackle. We swapped in "exit," though, to better match the original "Speak, friend, and enter."

So yeah, our phrase that pays is "Excrete, friend, and exit."

I'm adding the invisible black light paint here.

And here are our Doors of Durin, all finished!

John and I did one final push to finish the bathroom this week, and we are WIPED, lemme tell ya.

:D

So how 'bout a tour?

And now some photos, to show off the details. We went SUPER dramatic and dim with the lighting, so getting these was a challenge.

Hobbit Party Progress: Our DIY Doors Of Durin & Mount Doom Ring Toss

Hallo, friends! I've missed you! How'd the last week and a half go? Unfortunately I was on the couch with a sinus-y head-cold thing for most of it, including Christmas, so John and I had to spend the day alone.  That's ok, though, because in true Hobbit style we have SECOND Christmas to look forward to.

Yep, while everyone is posting recaps and resolutions, John and I are still merrily decorating, wrapping gifts, and working on our costumes.

 LOOK HOW CUTE JOHN IS AS A HOBBIT

He's been growing out his hair, and thrifted everything except the cloak, which is just some pinned green fabric.

While I was down John made all SORTS of Hobbit party things, which I'm about to show you. My only contribution today is the bathroom sign, but at least it's some of my finest work:

MY FINEST. :D

[Update: by popular request, here's my image file. Feel free to download & print your own!]

I also planned and wrapped a bunch of things for a "White Oliphaunt" dice game, since the Critical Role gang made it look so fun on 4-Sided Dive.

  Meanwhile, John's smallest project last week was an 8-foot tree of Gondor for the back yard:

It's plywood covered in glitter, and we have a bunch of lights around it, so it's all sparkly at night.

John's favorite build is completely over-the-top ridiculous, and all his idea, ha.

First he hand-painted a block wall onto pink foam:

... which looks like this:

Wishing You A Happy Hobbit Holiday!

Happy Friday, friends! It's almost Christmas, WE MADE IT. I do hope you get some time off this weekend and/or next week to recharge and hang with loved ones. I know I'm looking forward to some much-needed down time. And pie. (Mmmm, pie.)

I won't keep you long today; I just have to show you our decorated Hobbit Door!

AAAAAA LOOK HOW PRETTY AND FESTIVE

It's a point of pride with me that we didn't buy anything new for this, other than a bag of cotton batting for "snow." The wreath is scrap Pex tubing from the garage, then two different garland remnants I painstakingly disassembled and zip-tied in place.

Speaking of wreaths, here's another pretty one:

I made the Hobbiton sign for craft night several months ago. It's made of foam with googly eyes for rivets.

K, back to the door:

The garland is the one we use almost every year over this doorway. It has sparkly fruit in it, perfect for Hobbitses.

I spent so long trying to get the "snow" to look right.

The snow in the bottom of the wreath hides the battery pack for the lights. 

So hey, ready to go inside?

"The Beacons Are Lit!" Our DIY Tree of Gondor Menorah

Happy Tuesday and Happy Hanukkah, hobbits and friends! Whether you celebrate or not, I think you'll appreciate this quick Middle Earth DIY:

A White Tree of Gondor Menorah! (Gondorah? :D)

I originally had grand plans of sculpting the tree, but the menorah part stumped me. (Ooooh, unintentional pun! Best kind!) So instead I layered a paper tree over our existing menorah, which is MUCH easier and also turned out rather lovely.

The contrast of the shiny silver and chunky white glitter looks super cool in the light, and I like that the tree is a little more subtle.

SO HEY. Want to make your own?

All you'll need is some white poster board, glitter, and this menorah:

Our DIY Dragon Hoard Christmas Tree

John and I had such an amazing Dapper Day Saturday that we went back for more on Sunday. Which means I'm a day behind and have twice the content, oops. So I'll bring you those photos and fun stories on Friday, k?

In the meantime, here comes another Hobbit Holiday build: our Dragon Hoard Christmas tree!

Yes, our mini Smaug has amassed his own treasure pile in our this corner tree, and is fiercely protecting it from the cats.

"MINE."

The tree is full of giant gems, strands of pearls, medallions, mirrors - basically every gold and/or sparkly thing our house had to offer, plus gold Christmas balls for fill.

I re-painted a plastic Tangled goblet to make that fancy chalice, and I think the gold box held candy?

I also hit up my friend Traci's cosplay closet for some foam swords and a bunch of sparkly tiaras, which make a fantastic tree topper:

I plan to keep adding "treasures" as I either find or make them, so the hoard should grow by party time.

In fact this would be a great thrift store project! Paint lightweight tchochkes gold, maybe bedazzle them with plastic rhinestones, and boom: instant treasure.

These are parts of a Christmas sprig I glued to a broken chain belt. :D

A Dollar Tree mirror from my stash. I had to get creative since we haven't had time for a thrift run.

"Ok, Jen," I can hear you saying, "That's great. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGON?"

Ahhh, that's the best part!

We Made A Life-Sized Hobbit Door For Our House!

Happy Friday, po-tay-toes & hobbitses! Remember when we made these?

Hobbit Door Wreath DIY

What do you say we make a life-sized one? With a functioning door? For a Hobbit party?

I'm getting strong "yes" vibes over here, so I'll assume those are from you.

LET US PROCEED.

John and I turned once again to our trusty not-sponsor - but we're open, Pink Panther, just sayin' -  pink insulation foam.

Blocking out the basic shapes - and quickly discovering that threshold was a face-plant waiting to happen, ha. That'll get lowered later.

This will not be Bilbo's iconic door, because we wanted something less character-specific. And red, to be more festive. Our inspiration was this other Hobbit hole in New Zealand:


via Rachael Christian

So pretty, right? Just imagine it all decked out with lights and snow for Christmas!

Once we had all the pieces we starting adding wood grain texture:

I used an awl for the lighter grain and knots, then John sliced V grooves with a craft blade for the deeper cracks.

Four pieces of foam stacked & glued to make these honkin' corbels:

My wood grain's not great on this side, shhhh.

Once we painted everything brown it really started coming together:

New Dollar Tree DIY: Hobbit Door Wreaths!

I've got a super fun DIY for your next craft night, gang; this was a huge hit with my group, and I think my favorite thing we've made all year:

Hobbit Door Wreaths!

Or alternatively, Fairy Door Wreaths.

In fact that's what I love about these: they're infinitely customizeable. And - AND! -  you can buy everything you need from Dollar Tree, so they only cost a few dollars each to make.

Here's my Friday Night group hard at work on theirs:


I'll show you all their finished wreaths as we go along.

First, let's talk materials:



 I found the wreaths, flowers, rope hangers, moss, and I think even the wood beads all at Dollar Tree. The only thing not from DT on mine are the tiny mushrooms and the insulation foam we used for the doors - but here's a handy foam substitution you CAN find at Dollar Tree:



Did you know you can peel off the paper backing from DT foam board? I just learned this trick from Studson Studio, my new favorite Youtuber. You can stack the foam together to make thicker pieces, and just like pink or blue insulation foam, this stuff carves & textures like a dream. Perfect for woodgraining.

Again, we used pink foam because we have so much in the garage, but everything I'm about to show will also work on DT foam.

Last thing: be on the lookout for things you can turn into tiny door handles. Wooden beads, jewelry pieces, or these finger puzzles from Dollar Tree all work great:

FoE & Tell: Toothless the Hufflepuff, Hobbit Needlepoint, & Baby Shuri!

A lot of folks have stepped away from social media this week, and I don't blame y'all a bit: even the best of us need to limit our scroll-time right now, just for our own mental health. If you're missing my blog posts because of that, though, you can sign up to get them by e-mail! Just click the first orange circle in the top right-hand side here on Epbot, then click "Get Epbot delivered by e-mail." Boom. No more missed posts.


Now, let's take a look at some of my favorite Fans of Epbot posts you may have missed! This Facebook group continues to be a respite of geeky goodness for me, and I love y'all SO MUCH for continuing to share the light and laughs. So here we go, all the good stuff, with zero toilet paper memes:

SQUEEE!

 In the comments Kate explained how they could tell which House each of their girls belonged to, and it was almost as cute as these photos. I love that parents learn their littles' personalities so young.

*****

It once took me about 10 years to finish an 8X10 cross-stitch, so this? This has me IN AWE:

Click this one to embiggen for details:

Woooooooow. That is stunning, Anne! 

(P.S. The art is called "A long long adventure" by Jian Guo.)

*****

While we're on a Hobbit theme, look who Helen met:

Frodo himself, Elijah Wood!

Helen made the giant Prancing Pony tankard out of EVA foam, not to mention her entire cosplay. You can follow her on IG at @of_the_fforest.

*****

And one more for Hobbit fans:

Anyone else with a Cricut eyeing the scrap pieces of wood in their garage now? This could be dangerous. :D

*****

Donna Jo is over here spreading all the smiles: