Christmas Door Decorating Contest 2015
My company hosts the Actionet Annual Door Design Competition every Christmas where employees are asked to bring forth their skills to create a door worthy of winning. I have the pleasure of being in the presence of 2 other creative masterminds in the payroll department. My supervisor Crystal, who let's just get this out of the way, is fucking awesome, is a Cricut/Scrapbook/all around creative person. Maribel shares an office with me and is amazing at knitting/crocheting/questioning my vision and is always the clencher once the doors are close to being done.
Going into the 2015 contest we had already won 2 years in a row and was looking for the next idea for our annual door design. The concept for the design is usually something I've seen on Pintrest or from a person who inspires me. I have an annoying coworker who sounds like Eric Cartman from Southpark every time she starts to complain. So one day I started to do his voice (I do a spot on Cartman impression) and decided that was our concept. I started searching the web for inspiration and found this picture when I googled Southpark Christmas:
My design process goes down fairly quickly. Using the photo for inspiration I figured out the space I had available which was 3 doors and a connecting wall. I buy rolls of paper from Ikea since its cheap but also serves as sketching paper and used for making patterns. I did a rough sketch of my ideas along with supplies that I was going to need. I find this is absolutely crucial to my design process because I have ideas flowing at 100mph so I have to write it down somewhere. I hung the sketches on my office wall so anytime I remembered something or remembered a supply I would need I could jot it down immediately.
I decided to have a South Park sign on the first door and the inspiration picture as the main wall. The other two doors I wanted Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo and Santa on but I was struggling with another character to use. I thought Mr. Garrison and Mr. Hand would be cool until I told my coworker about him and his uh proclivities. She did not want him on the door so I had to think about someone else instead. It was only September so I had a few months to marinate on that.
So these are my sketches:
Watching Michaels coupons like a hawk I managed to score a 20% your entire sale coupon and went to stock up on supplies. I made a list of all the colors I was going to need for my characters and bought a fuckton of felt. I made sure to get a few of each so I wouldn't have to go buy more. I purchased white, black, tan, cream, brown, red, dark green, light green, turquoise blue, yellow, red, and orange.
My boss purchased bulletin paper at a teacher's store in dark green, light blue, and white. The teacher stores frequently have coupons and was cheaper than Michaels for the background paper. I try to use what I have already rather than purchase a lot of supplies. Crystal keeps Scor tape in bulk and that is what I use to affix everything to the walls, doors, and poster board.
Supply List
Felt in multiple colors
Bulletin Board Paper in light blue, green, and white here and here
Black Big Sharpie here and here
6 Poster boards (buy at the dollar store they are 2 for $1)
Scor tape here
2 bags of fake snow
Cricut machine
Scrap book paper
Christmas tinsel
Battery powered Christmas mini-lights
Mardi Gras beads
Thread
Scissors
Picture of each character blown up on a copier to scale size
Cotton balls
Santa hat from the dollar store
I googled each character I was planning on putting up and used my copier machine at work to blow up each picture to scale. I cut each character out and taped the template to a piece of poster board. I managed to get 3 characters out of each poster board but depending on the size you are going for this may vary. I cut out the different pieces from each character starting with their faces, eyes, eyebrows, hats, and shirts. Using the paper template I started cutting out the different pieces for Kyle shown below:
Once I had the pieces cut out I used the Scor tape to start assembling Kyle. I always start with the largest piece this being the orange felt used for his shirt. I layered his face on top and it just looked all types of wrong. I cut the felt down a little bit so it would fit on top of his shirt. I added his hat, eyes, mouth, teeth, and eyebrows next.
I started on Stan, Cartman, and Kenny. It took the better part of my Saturday to complete the four characters. The details were done with the big sharpie but everything else is felt only. I was worn out and retired for the rest of the weekend. I am a perfectionist and every detail has to be right on point. Have the pictures handy so you can duplicate everything trust it will make life easier than looking it up on your phone every 5 mins.
The following weekend I started on Chef, Sheila Brofloski, Ike, and Santa:
My coworker knit Sheila's hair using maroon yarn and it came out amazing.
I measured the bulletin paper on the big wall and started with the sky so used the light blue. Secured that to the wall using Scor tape. I roughly sketched out the mountains on the dark green paper and applied that over the blue. Using the fake snow I started working on the snow for the mountain tops and clouds.
I know it doesn't look like much right now but Chef needed to find a home
Then the boys needed a new home
I started adding in details such as trees Crystal had cut out using the Cricut machine. The pattern had space to add in pieces of the fake snow so I decorated them. Maribel knitted little ornaments and made smaller ornaments using a Mardi Gras beaded necklace, hot glue, and some string. I finished each tree off with a yellow star. Crystal also cut out snowflakes so I put all of that up to finish the main wall.
The first door was made using the Cricut machine to cut out the letters for South Park. We carried over the snow flakes to make the design cohesive. I used fake snow to help cover the door knob area so it didn't stick out like a sore thumb. The window frame was black poster board.
On the first season of South Park Kyle was really upset with his adopted brother Ike and started a "Kick the Baby" game. He would literally punt his baby brother around. So that's where I came the concept for my door. I added a Christmas tree with battery powered lights and a star to set that off nicely. I used the snow flakes as well and letters cut out from the Cricut (again).
The last door was so amazing. Crystal cut Mr. Hankey out of scrap book paper along with the reindeer/sleigh. Santa fit his chunky ass in there nicely. Maribel knitted the hat and gloves for Mr. Hankey and didn't realize it was for a piece of shit, literally. She asked what he was supposed to be and laughed so hard about it.
So that's how I came up with the awesomeness that is known as South Park Christmas. We won for the third year in a row. Now comes the burden of making something even more amazeballs for 2016. Thankfully I have a few months.
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