Basically, the projects for the party involved decorating, and making the items with which to decorate. (Not the easiest thing to do, by the way, when the person you’re trying to keep the secret from actually uses part of the house you’re trying to decorate.) The thrift shop was the perfect place to find magic potions bottles (ordinary average decanters), candles, candlesticks, silver place settings, scarves, fabrics, place-card holders and a broom. Because Halloween was also the month before, a little planning ahead allowed me to pick up some discount props-- spiders, owls, a raven, a cauldron and the like. You know: stuff every girl shops for.

 

The pictures below are of my downstairs rooms which became Harry Potter-inspired “classrooms.” Pretty much everything here is either something I already owned, borrowed from a friend, or I made from items I found at thrift stores, craft stores, the drug store or the supermarket.

 

Divination

 

Herbology

 

 

 

Transfiguration

 

Gryffindor Common Room (AKA: livingroom-- no decor change!)

 

Rather than go into all the boring details (and believe me, there are a lot of them-- It ain’t easy to build a magic castle when you also work full-time!), I’ll just mention I have three favorite projects from this:

The portrait of the Fat Lady. After I painted her on the canvas using acrylic craft paints, I dressed her in real lace, pearl beads, and doll hair for that quirky dimensional effect, gluing these items straight onto the canvas. Still totally cracks me up.(And makes guests do a real double take!)