1: 60s Party Decorations - Psychedelic Vibe
Pat Psychello has dreams of being a psychedelic artist and so adding a psychedelic vibe to your decorations is hip, man.
There are different possible psychedelic color schemes; should you wish to coordinate your color schemes with the party pack printouts, then choose pink, purple, turquoise, green, and yellow colors.
Our first test party featured a psychedelic look with Amscan's fab room roll and Hestya's hip table runners.
1 Buy a scene setter or wall hanging.
We used Amscan's wonderful 60s Groovy Room Roll to cover the feature wall in both our dining room and lounge. We loved the bright colors and wavy lines. While other companies do offer fab wall hangings, Amscan's wonderfully bright colors perfectly matched the color scheme of our main party pack decorations.
2 Mirror the hip colors of your scene setter or wall hanging with similar colors in your table runner. Optionally use a table runner on opposite edges of your table rather than in the center.
We chose two fab Sparkly Sequin Glitter Rainbow Table Runners from Hestya. These no longer seem to be manufactured but other companies do offer rainbow or 'paint splatter' table runners. (We decided that using two table runners, one down each side of the table, was more colorful than having one central table runner.)
3 Use the circular place card settings in the murder mystery's Menu and Place Card zip (zip 7). These offer bright, swirling colors.
4 Use the colorful record centers in the game's decoration pack (zip 6) to form the centers of LPs and singles for placemats, coasters, and a record mobile. See section 2 below.
5 Use leftover oddments of the room roll to cover vases or the wine bottle base of candles. Alternatively, use brightly-colored napkins.
6 Alternatively, mirror your scene setting or wall-hanging colors with your tablecloth. (With psychedelic decor, a riot of clashing colors is fab, man.) If you cannot find psychedelic tablecloths, then search instead for rainbow or tie-dye.
7 Use a psychedelic tablecloth and then mirror these colors with bright rainbow tinsel curtains to cover walls or doorways.
8 Use brightly colored napkins, plates and glasses. Many online suppliers offer these as rainbow or tie-dye options.
9 Cover table mats and coasters with brightly-colored tissue paper or wrapping paper.
10 Buy psychedelic wrapping paper. Use this to cover sheets of cardboard. Then stick the decorations from the game's party pack onto this simple DIY frame. As an alternative, use your brightly colored napkins to cover the cardboard.
Artwork from the decoration pack: Pat Psychello's artwork is framed by a simple black card to form an eye-catching wall visual.
The artwork mimics the geometric patterns or psychedelic art without being too ink-heavy.
11 Use the psychedelic artwork created by Pat Psychello in the game's decoration kit. (We used abstract patterns while muting the colors to make the printouts more ink-friendly.)
12 Create your own artwork with swirling, kaleidoscopic patterns or intricate geometric patterns. Try bold colors - the aim is to recreate an altered state of reality and not to portray real life. Use your artwork to decorate walls and tables.
2: Rock'n'Roll Decoration Ideas
The murder mystery is set in the 60s music industry during the heart of rock'n'roll. Pete L.J. Phoenix is a music mogul, Drake Wilde and Skye MacLeod are rock stars and Pearl was organizing the world's grooviest rock festival before her murder. Also, Payton and Major Morals focus a lot of their attention on campaigning against the "smuttiness" of rock songs. Therefore, music and rock'n'roll decorations are very appropriate for this game.
2.1 Musical Instruments
We placed guitars on our sideboard to provide a focal point.
We also used a miniature drum and guitar set as a table centerpiece.
13 Use small musical instruments as a table centerpiece. In the photo above, we used a set of miniature toy drums and a guitar that we had bought from a tourist shop as the centerpiece.
Guitars and drums placed in from of a fab scene setter.
Printouts of the record covers from the game's decoration pack are framed on black card.
14 Place a selection of musical instruments in front of a background to provide a prominent focal piece. Either stand them on the floor as in the photo above or hang them from walls. Even place them on a sideboard.
2.2 Record Covers
15 Use the 12 Singles Record Covers provided in the game's party pack. (These record covers are the hits of Pete L.J. Phoenix's music empire with hits by stars of the mystery such as Drake and the Dynamico Dynamods.)
In the photo above, we turned these record covers into a feature by staggering them on a large black card background. (Note that the black card echoed the black tablecloth for visual consistency across the party spaces.)
16 Use records and record covers to decorate your walls or tables; some hosts also put them above the sink in the cloakroom.
17 Use record covers and records to create a frame for your doorway as guests arrive.
2.3 Records as Decorations
Records - both LPs and Singles - were popular throughout the 1960s and so records are a fab and versatile element of party decor.
We bought a bunch of second-hand records from a charity shop and also from a recycling center. We have been able to use them in different ways for different murder mystery parties and so they were a very useful buy. Check out our 1920s Speakeasy party decorations, 1970s disco party decorations, 1990s party decorations and also our Halloween decor to see just how different the accessories can make the records look.
2.3.1 60s Table Decorations with a Musical Vibe
Place setting for our 60s game with Hestya's fab table runner and place cards, menus and record centers from the mystery's materials.
18 Use LPs as placemats and singles as coasters.
Tip: if you have a wooden table, then create placemats that offer some degree of heatproofing by having several layers of records with cardboard circles in between them. Use a black felt-tip pen to cover up any visible traces of cardboard. Do not place items straight from the oven or stove on these records.
19 For the coasters, use the record centers that come with the game's Decoration Pack.
20 Use LPs and/or Singles records to create a cake stand. Another option is simply to cover an existing cake stand with tissue paper and then to place a record on top. (This is ideal if you have a flowery cake stand and wish to tie it in visually with your decor theme.)
Important safety note: vinyl is not food-safe, so you should NOT place food directly onto a vinyl record.
21 Use LPs instead of a tray to stand drinks, glasses, or cutlery containers on.
22 Cut musical shapes out of card. Shapes could be musical notes or the shape of musical instruments. Use these shapes as a table runner or arrange them into a table centerpiece. Alternatively, buy them from an online store or buy musical confetti for your table.
23 Buy musical cupcake toppers and use these to decorate both sweet and savory dishes.
2.3.2 A Groovy 60s Record Mobile as a Table Centrepiece
Unuusual 60s table centrepiece: mobile using Singles records.
Record centers are from the game's decoration pack.
24 Use single records to create a groovy record mobile as a table centerpiece.
We used a dozen single records and glued the record centers that come with the game's Decoration Pack on BOTH sides of the Singles so that the mobile would be equally colorful from all angles. We then hung these Singles from different arms of our ceiling light, using different lengths of black cotton, to create an interesting effect.
Note: by hanging the Singles from different arms of our ceiling light, we were able to create a 3D effect. (Make your own safety assessments on this.) We could have created a similar effect by hanging them from different points on the ceiling.
2.3.3 Records as Wall Hangings
Bonnie used spray paint to create two "platinum records".
She placed these above and below a framed TurretsFest poster from the game.
25 Spray paint an LP with gold paint to simulate a platinum record.
26 Turn LPs and/or Single records into an eye-catching display by attaching them to a large piece of cardboard. For extra visual effectiveness, first cover this cardboard with colorful napkins, wrapping paper or tissue paper. Alternatively, hang a colored sheet over a wall and then use cotton thread to hang records over this sheet. (See our 70s decorations page for how this could look.)
27 Buy second-hand 1960s LPs from a charity shop. Use the covers to decorate your walls or tables.
28 Use record covers and records to create a frame for your doorway as guests arrive.
2.3.4 Unusual Party Entrance Sign Made with Records
A party entrance sign made with 8 LP records, a second-hand picture frame and printouts from the game's decoration kit.
29 Make a stunning and unusual party entrance sign made with records, a second-hand picture frame and printouts from the game's decoration kit.
We bought a second-hand picture in a gold picture frame from a charity shop. We replaced the picture with black card and then glued the "PJL Phoenix Records" sign from the Decoration Pack onto the center of the card.
We then selected 8 second-hand LP records and stuck the record centers provided with the game onto the center of each LP.
We turned the frame onto its front and used an electric drill to screw one LP into each corner so that just a quarter of the record center was hidden by the frame when seen from the front. We screwed the other four records onto the frame so that they formed the top, bottom, left and right centers of the frame. See photo above.
Safety note: we wore a mask before drilling vinyl.
2.4 Other Musical Decorations
30 Get posters of 60s pop stars and place these on your walls or tables.
31 Have a vintage record player on display.
32 Use the music-themed wine label provided with the game as a bottle label.
33 Buy balloons in the shape of guitars and microphones from online party suppliers.
34 Cut large musical notes out of colored cardboard or paper - or buy from an online supplier. Make these notes into a mobile, a table centerpiece, a banner or a wall arrangement.
