Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party (Part 1, including a wand DIY)

This past weekend we had a Harry Potter-inspired 10th birthday party for our son. Where have the years gone?!

I’ll share all the bits and bobs from the party over a few posts, there were so many great ideas that I found! Check out my Harry Potter Party board on Pinterest 🙂

Firstly, the invitation.

I took inspiration for the design from this pin. I downloaded 3 free fonts: Harry P, Wizards Magic, and Hogwarts Wizard. The first two were available on Dafont.com. For Hogwarts Wizard I ended up downloading from Fonts2u.com. I had to Google that, because the links from the pins didn’t lead anywhere helpful.

I used PicMonkey for the design, it was quite easy!

Here’s what we ended up with. The birthday boy was suitably impressed:

As I mentioned last year at this time, I email the invitations. This saves them getting left at the bottom of a school bag, and also to not be so obvious to those that haven’t been invited.

Secondly, it goes without saying that wizards need wands.

Earlier in the year I ordered some extra long chopsticks from eBay. They are about 45cm long. At around $1.70 a pair, they were a pretty good price!

To turn the chopsticks into wands, I followed Gretchen’s instructions over on Boxy Colonial. It was not a difficult job, and a bit of fun!

I used my trusty hot glue gun to create patterns on the ‘handle’ end of the wands. I did 2 each of five different designs, creating 10 wands. As always, make sure you take appropriate care when using your hot glue gun. It’s called *hot glue* for a reason 😉

When the glue was dry, I painted the wands using a couple of different coloured acrylic paints. I used brown, and randomly mixed in a little white or black so each wand would look different.

To make the patterns stand out, I enhanced them with some gold paint. I just put a small amount on the tip of my finger and gently rubbed it over the designs. On some, I also rubbed gold paint along the tip of the wand.

I wasn’t sure the paint would stick to the glue, but it was ok. Even better after the paint had been sealed. As I didn’t have any spray sealer at home, I needed to find some. The craft shop had a huge bottle for somewhere between $15 and $20. Sure, I would have had some leftover for another project. But I’ve managed without it up ’til now, so I imagine I won’t be needing it again in a hurry. Instead, I bought the cheapest, smallest bottle of hairspray from the supermarket. Under $3. Job done!

If these wands were going to become family heirlooms to be passed down the generations, I would of course have used a better quality sealer to make them last. But they are not, they are party props. So I am quite comfortable with my choice to use a cheaper substitute.

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These wands made a unique take-home gift for the guests (along with a few other surprises). I think they liked them!

Linking up with:

Average But Inspired – The DIY Collective, Milk and Cuddles – Mommy Club, 21 Rosemary lane – Share Your Style, Too Much Time on my Hands – The Handmade Hangout, Posed Perfection – Creative Ways, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson – Share Your Cup, Lamberts Lately – Create it Thursday, Domesblissity – Thriving on Thursdays, Wondermom Wannabe – This is How We Roll, Sincerely, Paula – Weekend Blog Hop, The Life of Jennifer Dawn – A Little Bird Told Me, Love Bakes Good Cakes – Freedom Fridays, The Pin Junkie, Life With Lorelei – Home Matters, Shoestring Elegance – What to do Weekends, Raising Fairies and Knights – Bloggers Spotlight, Tatertots and Jello – Link Party Palooza, Strawberry Butterscotch – Saturday Shuffle, 24 Cottonwood Lane – Best of the Weekend, The Pinterested Parent – Sunday’s Best, The Interior Frugalista – DIY Sunday Showcase, Thoughts From Alice – Sundays at Home, My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies – Snickerdoodle Sunday, That Recipe – Happiness is Homemade, My Pinterventures – Merry Monday, Claire Justine – Creative Mondays, Create With Joy – Inspire me Monday, Pastels and Macarons – The Creative Corner, Raising Fairies and Knights – Everything Kids, I Should be Mopping the Floor – Inspiration Monday, Yesterday on Tuesday – Project Inspired, Lou Lou Girls, Kathe With an E – You’re Gonna Love it, Our Home Away from Home – Tuesdays at Our Home, Cozy Little House – Tweak it Tuesday, Ramblings of a (Bad) Domestic Goddess – Turn it up Tuesdays, Cedar Hill Farmhouse – The Scoop, The DIY Dreamer – From Dream to Reality, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Wonderful Wednesday, Savvy Southern Style – Wow us Wednesdays, Simply Made Fun – Wednesday Roundup, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Friday Features