Wednesday, October 1, 2014

De-gnoming the Garden Bean Bag Toss Game

Daughter and her cousin enjoyed the Harry Potter party last year so much they requested to have one again this year.  Yay!  Hogwarts 2nd year it is!  We have a lot of planning and crafting to do before November!  We've got games and many many new creatures and objects to recreate.  Here is one project that is probably my favorite so far.



Bean Bag Garden Gnomes!



We made a total of eight gnomes for a "De-gnoming the Garden" bean bag toss game.  There is one large 12' tall one and seven smaller 10" ones.  Four with and three without acrylic eyes that I started putting on them before realizing they will most likely get scratched up when tossed.



Students (Players) will have to hunt down a gnome; tag it; and toss it over a fence (maybe into hoops) for a possible combined Herbology/Care of Magical Creatures Class.  We may have two different versions of the game.  One on timing and one for accuracy that will earn house points.  Students will get extra points for finding the largest gnome ("Arthur")  Yes, we decided to name them all after the Weasleys since they are the ones that introduced de-gnoming to us at the Burrow in the "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets".



Arthur and Bill



Charlie and Percy



Ron and and the smallest one, Ginny  (Didn't get good close ups of Fred and George.)





I tried to alter the pattern to appear more like the gnome illustration in the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" book.  About 10" tall with a potato-shaped head.  Couldn't figure out how to make hairy or horned feet, yet.  :)



While we were getting the pattern figured out, we made a couple prototypes.  Not knowing what else to do with them, we decided to paint them as golden gnome angels for our Christmas tree.  (Fred and George painted a gnome that bit one of them in "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" book.)



Looks like Fred getting ready to sneak back into the garden!  Bad gnome!  :)

Working on some Witch BOO'ts that I hope to have listed on Etsy this week.  Just finishing up some details and the poems for them.  I'll post when they are available.

UPDATE:  You can now have gnomes of your own from my Etsy store (mieljolie).

10 comments:

Leah said...

Oh my goodness!! these are fabulous!!!
so clever and Fun! Extraordinary! I want a garden full of these!

mieljolie said...

Thanks, Leah. I think our biggest trouble will be convincing the kids they can throw these outside in the dirt. :D

Be careful letting them stay in your garden. I hear they have a painful bite. ;)

K said...

lol, fantastic! Cant wait to see what other HP themed creations you make this year.

mieljolie said...

I'm excited to get busy on the party! I've got some Halloween things and events to attend this month, but I'm squeezing in projects where ever possible. Should see more smaller pixies, shrunken heads, new games, new food, and hopefully a dragon skeleton and giant Aragog! Crossing fingers I have the time and ability to get them done. :)

Viki Banaszak said...

OMG!!! Your gnomes are adorable! I think their heads look perfect. I can't wait to see more of your creations. Will you do a pattern for these?

mieljolie said...

Hi, BR. I can make the pattern available, but I need to get some other long overdue tutorials and other things finished before I write up the instructions. Wish me luck! :)

Tina Tau said...

Good luck! I also would love to buy the pattern as soon as you get one done. Can't wait to make some of my own.

Creatively Ever Ashley said...

These are so awesome!!! I see in the above comments you mentioned making the pattern available.. I was wondering if you knew when you would be doing that?

mieljolie said...

For those wondering, I hope to have a listing available that includes patterns for gnomes, pixies, fairies/doxies, and house elves available by fall. They are all based on the same instructions with some minor differences.

Unknown said...

I want to buy a golden angel gnome. We run a charity event and we are doing a weasley tree. Please respond to me at tauciaj@yahoo.com