“There is no magic in magic, it’s all in the details.” – Walt Disney
Ever since my kids were little, they’ve fully believed that mom is magic. I can find lost items that have vanished, make delicious snacks appear when there’s “nothing in the house to eat”, and I have them convinced that magical birds tell me what they’ve been up to. Am I really magic or do I just pay attention to details? It’s the details that always seal the deal with my kids so for my third and final post about our Harry Potter themed party, I thought I’d share with you how I created some of the details that wowed my kids and our guests.
Cricut Crafts
Cricut Tea Leaves
The first two bits of details I’d like to share with you were both made out of vinyl using my Cricut Expore Air. I created the Grim in the tea leaves (pictured above) that was inspired from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, using a teacup & saucer a friend of mine was getting rid of, and first searching online for an image of Grim in Tea Leaves. I came across a great image in an article on Popsugar.com. Next, I uploaded it to my Cricut Design Center and erased all of the background parts I didn’t want leaving me with the image below.
to cut out your own Grim
You can see from comparing the two images above that I didn’t transfer all of the tea leaf images to the teacup. My teacup was small, and I didn’t use transfer tape. The total size of my cut image is 1.5″ x 2.443″. I wasn’t quite sure of how exactly I wanted to place all of them in the cup so I just used some of the larger pieces I cut out of black vinyl. It turned out pretty great.
Ministry Sign
Next, I cut this Ministry This Way sign out of purple vinyl. This is another image that I searched online for and uploaded to my Cricut Design Center. To figure out how large to make the cut design, I measured the height & width of the toilet seat lid, deducted 4 inches giving me a 2 inch clearance on all sides. Only Witches & Wizards will know how to get to the Ministry of Magic this way!
I wasn’t able to locate where the original design
came from so I can’t link it here.
My Cricut Explore Air is absolutely my favorite crafting tool. Although it seems like a pricey initial investment (around $300) for a crafting tool, it’s completely worth it and I highly recommend it.
Printable Party Crafts
Wizard Portraits
There were several different items I made by just printing images I found online. For example, the Wizard Portraits I had hanging on the wall by our stairs. These images were all ones I’d found by searching online (links below), and printed on standard 8.5″ x 11″ copy paper. By using different frames of various sizes and “matting” some of them, they appeared to be larger.
The two larger wood frames I’ve had in the garage for many years. I’m not even sure where I bought them it was so long ago. I used brown shipping paper that I bought on a roll to give the matted effect to the pictures.
The other portraits were placed in metallic gold frames I purchased at the 99 Cent Store. I printed the picture of the Wizard yelling “Put out that light”, and Harry’s parents in a 5″ x 7″ size to add another size element. It was just like magic that these pictures all fit together so well!
Here’s the links to the images I used for Albus Dumbledor, Severus Snape, Godrick Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Ariana Dumbledor, the Healer Wizards, the Lights Out Wizard, and Lilly & James Potter.
House Banners
The very first thing I designed for the party was the House Banners. I had seen some images on Pinterest of ideas people had created with plastic table cloths and printed crests, but I knew with our large dinning room I wanted something a little grander. I purchased 4 yards of red, blue, yellow, gold, and green fabric, and 8 yards of black and grey fabric for the banners at the LA Fabric District for about $1.25 yd, and 2 expandable curtain rods from the clearance bin at Jo-Ann’s for $2 each.
Attaching the two curtain rods to the top of the dinning room wall, and using 10 push pins for each of the four panels, I attached the background panels (I didn’t bother hemming them since they were in the background) to the wall giving the nice, flowing, draped effect. Then I sewed a rod pocket at the top of each of the four front panels and hemmed the bottoms. Two panels hung on each curtain rod, and I tied each of the centers in a bundle with jute, and used push pins on the bottom corners to keep them flared out.
House Crests
The House Crests were created by again searching the internet for free printable images I liked. I printed them out on standard 8.5″ x 11″ copy paper, cut them out, and glued them to black paper shields I cut out our with my Cricut Explore Air. Since the shield were just made of paper, I put a drop of hot glue to the top and bottom of a wooden tongue depressor and attached it to the back of each shield. This helped keep the shield from curling up and provided a sturdy handle on the back. I threaded a piece of jute through the handle and tied them to the bundled front panels.
Upload this image to your Cricut Design Space to cut out your own shield
House Pins
I also used the same house crests to create House Pins for each of the guests. Some guests already knew their assigned houses from doing the Pottermore.com quiz, other’s used the Animated Sorting Hat I purchased on Amazon.
Potion Bottles
Potion Bottles and Spell Books were up next on the list. There are many great designs online you can use. I had been collecting old bottles from various places and printed some great ready made labels. I filled them with different colored liquids, corn syrup, and glitters to give each one a different look. Then I made sure to use hot glue to seal up each bottle just in case a well meaning guest tipped one over.
Try some of these labels and designs for your potion bottle labels.
The Restricted Section
I created a Restricted Section by covering the bindings of some old books on one of my shelves. I found some great downloadable designs on this blog, and created the Hogwarts – A History cover myself. Download my cover to use for your party.
Don’t forget a Muggle Section for the non magic folks!
Candy Cart
The very last detail I added was the Honeyduke’s Candy Boxes. The boxes were something I’d thought about making for a while but I wasn’t sure how well they’d work out. After doing some searching online I came across a great resource by Esther, Little Falling Star at Deviantart.com. Her artwork is awesome! She has some fantastic downloadable projects on there with an entire section devoted to Harry Potter themed artwork.
I bought Jelly Belly’s by the bulk locally and scooped 1/4 c into treat bags for each box.
I made the Chocolate Frogs with melting chocolate using a chocolate mold kit I bought on Amazon. The frog molds in this set are the exact size for Esther’s boxes.
One last handy hint on the boxes – Print them out onto cardstock. Use an X-acto knife or small, sharp scissors with a point to cut out the boxes. Be sure to pre-crease all the folds before assembly. This will make the boxes easy to put together. You can assemble them without the use of tape or glue.