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Guys! I’m so excited to be sharing my love and craziness for all things Harry Potter. Yes, I’m a huge fan. Hermione Granger is one of my favorite female characters in all of literature-she’s smart, clever, kind, and courageous. I never get tired of it.
i peek up at his features, at the crooked
Anyway, I’m really happy to be joining other Harry Potter fanatics, including my friend Marisa from Rae Gun Ramblings. This week, she is hosting another fabulous Harry Potter week that includes posts from bloggers like myself that deal with all things Harry Potter. I’ve been so inspired by the projects I’ve seen already.
Also, there are some other fun things happening. There is a great giveaway (see the bottom) and an Instagram photo challenge (use #happyharrypotter):
I am loving the photo challenge! I’m a little behind myself but it’s been fun to see all of the creativity happening.
I decided to make some wands. My kids are still little and I’ve been slowly getting them excited about Harry Potter by watching the movies. I have found that the thing they relate to the most are the wands. It’s seriously so cute to hear my three year old say “Reducto!” I also used to make these once upon a time when I hosted parties at a museum in college. They were kids’ parties and one of the themes was Harry Potter. The wands we made were out of construction paper and were not as cool as these turned out. But the idea was there and I decided to resurrect my old days as a party hostess with my kiddos.
I found some thin wood paper at Joanns recently-yes, wood paper!-and it was the perfect ingredient for our wands. Here are the other supplies you need:
Wood paper (found at Joanns) or other paper of your choice
Paper straws
Feathers, thin ribbon
Pipe Cleaners
Hot Glue
First, grab a straw and let your little witches and wizards choose what they want to be inside their wands. Remember, in Harry Potter, all of the wands were made with a particular wood and had another special item in the middle like a Phoenix Feather. Find items around the house that you can use in the middle of the straws and be creative! We used the feathers and then thin red ribbon for Dragon Tongue.
Next, grab your wood paper. This wood paper was the perfect length to cover a straw. I believe I cut them around 1.5 inches. I wrapped the straw first to see how much I should cut, making sure to not overlap it too much. Use double sided tape on the back side and then wrap it around the straw. Use hot glue to seal the edges down tightly.
If you are wanting a longer wand, for bigger kids, cut another 1/3 of a straw and insert it into one of the ends of the other with hot glue. Wrap that end with more paper. Don’t worry about the overlap of the paper showing because we will cover it in the next step.
Grab a piper cleaner and cut off enough of a small piece to wrap around the wand. For the short wands, I used two pieces and for the longer ones, I used three. Adhere these with more hot glue. One of the wraps you can put over the top of the overlap of the paper pieces for the longer wands (as mentioned in step above).
Cut more strips of paper and glue them over the tops of the pipe cleaners. For the finishing touch, cut another strip that will wrap around the “bumps” you made in a spiral shape. You can crisscross them too (I did that with one of the shorter wands).
Use hot glue and adhere the one end on the back side of the top bump and then wrap to the backside of the bottom and hot glue to complete.
This is what the inside looks like. My kids loved to think there were special powers in their wands! Especially because the Phoenix is such a cool bird. And be prepared for spells and magic as your little ones practice. Mine had them in their pockets at the store and everywhere we went. Of course, I had mine in purse-you never know when a wand might come in handy!! Someone may need to be turned into a ferret.
