DIY Harry Potter Wands

To cement my status as the nerdiest nerd who ever lived not only did I, a fully-fledged adult, visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter but I also made magic wands for my friend and me to carry around the theme park. I found a few online tutorials and used them as a jumping off point but pretty much made it up as I went along.

Casting a spell on the Hogwarts Express

I started with a humble chopstick, which I rolled into the center of a tube of construction paper, rolled to be slightly narrower at one end. The tutorials I found said to fill the tube with oodles of hot glue, which is a fine idea in theory but turned out to be difficult to do in reality. I did my best but even after redoing one of the wands there were still a few empty pockets where the hot glue didn't reach before it hardened. Still, I figure that between the chopstick and all of the paint the wands will hold up just fine for casual use. I'll avoid casting Unforgivable Curses with these wands just to be on the safe side.



I snagged the idea to add glass stones at the end from a tutorial at Kate's Escapades with the added idea to personalize each wand with different images Mod Podged to the underside of each glass stone. I'd done something similar in the past making magnets from this tutorial at Sew Woodsy. I just clipped the images from catalogs, hers a sequined green fabric from Boden and mine a cross from an image of the Queen's crown in some British catalog I receive.



From there it was just a matter of adding paint and some decorative details with more hot glue. There's no right or wrong way to do this so I got creative and did the best I could with my unwieldy glue gun. Because my friend and I have such different personalities I thought I'd make her wand a nice brown "wood" with green and silver accents. My wand, on the other hand, would have to be dark and evil as befits a wizard like myself. I painted hers brown, piped on some hot glue in swirly patterns (lots of great ideas for different patterns here), and painted over those details with silver and green metallic paint. To give it a more textured look I used a sponge brush and lightly painted over the entire thing with a mixture of dark gray paint and water. Mine was done the same way with dark gray paint and silver accents.

I'm happy to report that the wands worked perfectly. Here I am getting ready to use mine in a crowded store to compel this woman to move out of my way:



Alright, alright. I felt a little goofy walking around brandishing my magic wand but we wound up getting a few compliments on our homemade wands. We even got one from someone who works there and proclaimed that they looked nicer than the ones they sell in the gift shop for $30. The cutest part was when my friend was sternly warned by the conductor of the Hogwarts Express to be careful when waving her wand about as wand safety is so very important. Too true. I guess we have a lot to learn before we're fully qualified to use these things.

I know it looks like I'm casting a spell on my friend's armpit. That's because I am. If it works, she'll never grow hair there again! Guess I should have been considerate and cast the spell on her other armpit as well. Oops.

Cupcake Hat Made With Real Cupfakes

For reasons I can't even begin to explain, I was suckered into attending a Kentucky Derby party and dressing the part. That means that not only did I go out in public wearing a dress (egads!) but I also wore a goofy hat along with it. I got my inspiration from this dessert-themed hat, which I saw in a series of photos from a hoity-toity British event:


(Photo source)

Of course, I had to put my own spin on it so turned it into a cupcake hat. Much more appropriate since I'm known for my cupcakes. As much as I wish I could have mastered the cascading cupcake effect I had to be realistic and did what I could with my limited crafting skills and budget. I picked up a ridiculously large hat from a thrift store and set about turning the center into a giant cupcake. I wish I could have come up with a better idea for how to do this as I'm not entirely sure it's recognizable as a cupcake but I figured my second element would help tie it together. I'm kind of embarrassed by how badly that bit turned out.

Anyway, I am proud of how my cupfakes lining the brim turned out. I loosely followed this tutorial but because I needed to be able to wear these cupcakes had to come up with a lighter solution for the "cake" portion since theirs calls for plaster of Paris. While not the prettiest, I wound up cutting up some giant sponges bought at Family Dollar into circular pieces to help fill out the bottom of each cupcake. Sorry there's no picture of this step but given the way I hacked at the sponge with my dull scissors the result was not attractive. Which doesn't really matter once it's covered with the styrofoam balls and "frosting" in the form of lightweight spackle.

By far, my favorite part of the process was chopping some 3" styrofoam balls in half and painting around the edges of each one to make it resemble cake. I found that Jo Ann Fabrics' brand of acrylic paint in ivory was the perfect match for yellow cake. At this point I wasn't sure if I should continue turning them into cupcakes or make tawny-haired Prince William dolls.


After hot gluing my mangled sponge pieces to the bottom of the paper cupcake liners I stuck each painted and dried styrofoam piece onto a toothpick, added hot glue to the bottom of each for good measure, and stuck them into the middle of the sponge.

The other fun part of the project came when piping some lightweight spackle on top with my usual 1M piping tip to create those swirls. I did this in three batches so I could have an array of colors, making sure to wash all of my tools immediately so the spackle didn't set. I simply added some acrylic paint to a bowl, scooped in some spackle, and stirred quickly before putting it into a piping bag and piping just as I would onto a real cupcake. I wish I'd had more shiny things on hand to use as fake sprinkles but I used what I had, some small sparkly beads. On the blue ones I made the mistake of trying to sprinkle some edible sparkle powder on top, but it didn't really sprinkle so much as land in giant blogs that kind of melted. Not very attractive but I didn't have enough spackle left for a do over. We'll just pretend that polka dot cupcakes are en vogue.


I wound up tying for first place with my creation so all of my hard work paid off. And now I have a ridiculous item that I don't even have the room to store in my house. Something I'm sure many of you crafters out there can relate to.

Rolled Ribbon Flower Headband

I have an aversion to homemade goods that actually look homemade, which is why I haven't jumped on the rolled or singed flower bandwagon until now. But when I saw Alisa Burke's version fashioned into a headband I began to see the possibilities. What girl couldn't use a new headband, after all?


I like that her version is simple and features a little sparkle from the beads in the center. As with everything she creates, she makes it look so easy to recreate. And, for the most part, it is. I did wind up twisting my ribbon a little more tightly than she did because I had a hard time getting it to wrap properly otherwise.

As a result, I'm not sure if I'm all that thrilled with my new headband. It looks a little too homemade to my excessively picky eye. At least I got some practice taking self-portraits while trying to model it.

A Photo a Day [Day 162]

Embossed Stamped Stationery

Believe it or not, there are a few sections of the craft store that hold little interest for me: the fake flowers, clay, unfinished wood, and, until today, the rubber stamps. The latter have always seemed a bit pricey to me and I couldn't think of anything worthwhile to do with them. I'm not sure this latest craft counts as worthwhile but it's something fun to do to fill a lazy Sunday evening.

A few days ago I spotted Food, Wine, & Mod Podge's tutorial for embossed stationery and was ready to rush out and buy all of the necessary supplies. But I was patient and made the rounds to all of the nearby craft shops so I could dutifully use my coupons and not pay full price for anything. JoAnn Fabric happened to have embossing powder on clearance, Michaels had nice notecard/envelope sets on sale and lots of ink to choose from, and AC Moore had the embossing heat tool at 40% off with a coupon. Despite my efforts, I invested close to $20 in this project even though I was able to use the stamps I already had on hand. I'd picked up the two skull stamps around Halloween and my wonderful uncle gave me the Edward Gorey ballerina stamp last year. I'm so glad I now have a perfect way to put them to use!

The tutorial is spot on so if you're interested in trying this for yourself I'd recommend following those instructions. The only notes I have are to be sure to clear all of the embossing powder off before applying heat. There are a few smudges and spots around my stamps where I accidentally left some. I read somewhere that you might need to use a small brush or toothpick to do the job so I'll give that a go next time. Also, the heating process took less time than I expected, just a few seconds over each spot. The glossiness showed up almost immediately so be sure you don't overdo it with the heat. Still, even with a few errors I'm happy with my custom stationery and can't wait to start sending out notes.

I'm afraid this means I have a new crafting obsession as I spent the better part of the evening browsing Etsy for cute little rubber stamps. Looks like there's also one more aisle of the craft store for me to check out, much to my husband's chagrin.

Stocking Stuffer Idea

Photo from Sew Woodsy

It kills me that most of the projects I've been working on for Christmas can't be shared here until after the holidays because I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise. I don't know which of my friends might be reading my blog so I don't want to risk anyone getting a sneak peek at a present until the big day. I'll keep this post sufficiently vague and free of pictures from my actual project.

This is a bargain project with cute, customizable results. One of my favorite bloggers, Sew Woodsy, first made some skeleton magnets for Halloween that caught my eye. I added it to my to-do list and then, of course, promptly forgot about it. The concept is so simple and the supplies are cheap. Hit your local dollar store and buy a bag of round glass stones, the type used to anchor and decorate floral arrangements. You'll need a little Mod Podge and some hot glue plus a package of round magnets, easily found at a craft store. Either cut some pictures out from a magazine or catalog, print photos of your favorite celebrity crushes, or get creative and use wrapping paper or scrapbook paper to make fun magnets like these:

Photo from Sew Woodsy. No, I'm not trying to imply that Santa is her celebrity crush but you never know!

Follow Sew Woodsy's simple instructions to Mod Podge the paper to the back of your glass stone, trim, glue down the edges, and hot glue a magnet to the back of each. I've made two sets so far and plan to package them in decorated Altoid tins as stocking stuffers for friends. One set was made completely from pictures cut out of a clothing catalog, mostly closeups of their pretty floral fabrics. Another simple, satisfying project that can be done in a hurry, perfect for this time of year when we've all got a lot on our plates.

Halloween Mantle o' Doom

14 days 'til Halloween!


The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. The big reveal of my Halloween mantle o' doom! Growing up we always stuck "o' doom" after mundane things in order to make them sound more sinister and exciting. "Pork chops o' doom" sounds a lot more intriguing than having plain old pork chops for dinner, doesn't it? No? Guess it's just me.

I may not actually have a mantle ('o doom or otherwise) but I wasn't about to let that stop me from putting together my very own Halloween pseudo mantle just like all of the other fabulous ones I've seen cropping up on blogs these past few weeks. I cleared off space on a tall dresser in my sewing room that I thought would be perfect to house and highlight some of our creepiest decor. I should preface this by saying that in our home we love Halloween and all things spooky enough that we keep our Halloween decorations out all year long. Where others might have sweet snapshots of the family or replications of Monet's finest work we've got skulls, vampires, and creepy crawlies. That's why I was so eager to get this right because I know we'll keep this up even after Halloween has come and gone.


I've already highlighted some of the items you'll see here in my posts about the alien invasion silhouette plate, the cheap and easy cloche, the spooky framed pictures, and the tree branch vase. Most of the other items are from our permanent collection. In fact, I had to clear a bunch of Halloween decorations off of the dresser to make room for the new ones. I think we might be at the point now where we need to start packing some away in storage and rotating them in and out periodically. I guess we suffer from Halloween overload in our house!


Other items on the mantle o' doom that you may find noteworthy:

• The tall Dracula candlestick holder you see lurking in the back on the left side was found at Home Goods a few years ago.


• The skull and crossbones cloche was a lucky find at a post-Halloween Target sale.


• The googly-eyed puppets propped up in the Target candlestick holder (useless for holding candles but still pretty at 50% off) were a gift from someone I don't like very much (husband's ex) but they're so cool that I don't want to ditch them because of their inauspicious origin. Even if I do have to put up with the constant reminder.


• The skull picture stand with the Dracula sticker was from Target last year, I believe. Do you see a Target trend here?


• The sleek black rat is actually a candle I found highly discounted after Halloween at Old Navy. I think it wound up being around $2. Old Navy seems to start their Halloween markdowns before Halloween so if anything's left after they get aggressive and go for 75% off or better.


• The tiny grey hooded figurine holding his heart in his hands was one a series of figurines we bought at Five Below. We've got a whole row of his brothers and sisters in front of our TV.

When arranging everything I had to be mindful of the fact that two of our cats use this dresser as a perch from which they can survey their kingdom. I had to make sure to leave enough space for that and couldn't put up any sort of runner or slippery cloth that could cause them trouble. Ideally the items would be spaced out more evenly and I'd use that darkened cheesecloth I found at the Dollar Store for added texture, but it is not to be. Yes, we spoil our cats in our house. But even spoiled cats are less trouble than actual children so I figure it's a fair trade off.

Here's lookin' at you, kid

Alien Invasion Silhouette Plate

This was meant to be an easy way to make one of those ubiquitous silhouette plates with a fun Halloween twist. Turned out to be not quite so easy. Not only did it take forever to cut out every little detail of the silhouette but my Mod Podge skills aren't exactly up to snuff. If you don't look too closely you won't see the smears of paste around the edges of the image and you'll hardly notice the wrinkles in the silhouette. I guess that in addition to the alien invasion the poor boy also suffers from premature aging. One of these days I'll figure out how to properly use that stuff.

Still, I'm more or less happy with the result. I was doing a late-night Google search looking for inspiration when I stumbled across the awesome silhouette of a boy with an alien creature bursting out of his mouth. That plus a Dollar Store black plate was all I needed. Well, a little photo cropping and editing also helped followed by a lot of time spent carefully cutting the darn thing out.

This is the final homemade element my Halloween mantle has been missing. Now it's just a matter of arranging everything nicely, waiting for the right light, and chasing the cats away so I can get a decent picture of the finished product. Yes, I am drawing the suspense out as long as possible here. Hope the final reveal is worth it!

More Dollar Store Halloween Decor

18 days 'til Halloween!


Can you tell I've been mentally absorbing dozens of Halloween craft ideas from my fellow bloggers and went on a shopping spree at not one but three different Dollar Stores over the weekend inspired by those crafts? Still putting the finishing touches on my pseudo mantle so you can continue to eagerly anticipate the upcoming big reveal.


I picked up a few $1 frames, spray painted them black, and printed some spooky images from random Google searches onto plain paper. Not the best quality pictures if you get up close and scrutinize them, but who's really going to do that? I wish I'd been more meticulous and mindful of the fact that I was going to blog about these but I wasn't. So I can't even tell you what general search terms I used to come across these images let alone the actual sources where I got them. Sorry! Everyone's allowed a bad blogger moment once in a while, right? I can tell you that the "Keep Calm And Scary On" graphic is from Craftily Ever After. I struggled to find the right image for the largest frame but just yesterday discovered a post with lots of free Halloween printables compiled at Sassy Sites. Thanks to them for pointing me in the right direction! I did glue a tiny plastic spider onto one frame and propped a skull and crossbones charm onto another. That added bling really makes the difference, eh?


The vase thingy is obviously just a Dollar Store vase on a Dollar Store candle base with some dead branches from my dogwood tree stuck inside. I dumped the leftover plastic ants from my Halloween cloche into the bottom and wrapped a scrap of spider-covered ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabrics around the vase for some extra scares. For a final touch I tied on some Dollar Store skeletons. I intended to spray paint the branches black but due to my morbid tendency to cover everything in our house with black paint I ran out. Perhaps one day I'll finish the job if I can scrounge up the extra dollar to buy more from Lowe's.