In these 2 blog posts I’ll go into a little bit of detail about each item I constructed for my niece’s Splendiferous Harry Potter Christmas Present. So without further ado…

Trunk

• I found this decorative trunk at a crafting/ decor store and decided to add a lining. I used 4-5 square sheets of scrapbooking paper and basic Modge Podge. I cut and pasted small pieces to cover the right and left sides and then layered the remaining whole sheets over each other, applying shellac at each layer. It gives it a nice vintage feel

Snake slap bracelet

• I needed something for one of the early chapters so that my niece wouldn’t have to sit through half the book with a box full of unopened presents to taunt her, so I found this little snake slap bracelet for Chapter 2 when Harry vanishes the glass at the zoo. Nothing super awesome but at least this gets her started early on.

Hogwarts Letter/ ticket

• I found the envelope printable on Pinterest here
• For the Platform 9 3/4 ticket I used this printable on Pinterest and added gold embossing by hand inking over each letter, coating it in powder and knocking off the leftovers. I had to do each letter individually or the ink would dry too much to hold much powder. Then I put another piece of paper in between so that the paper wouldn’t scorch and ran a lighter very lightly back and forth under the lettering until the powder melted.
• I used this tutorial to construct my Hogwarts letter and printed it on specialty paper.
• I attempted to make my own Hogwarts seal out of left over air dry clay but it was rushed and I think I needed to seal or coat it first before pressing it to wax. I ended up just using my “F” initial seal that I bought in London in 1999. It’s not Hogwarts but as it will probably just be popped off anyway I think it will do 🙂

Hedwig

• I looked at nearly every owl pattern on Ravelry (at least that is how it felt) looking for an owl for my niece’s gift. And while I am an avid knitter I had never loom knitted until I saw this pattern and decided I had teach myself just to make it. This is by far the best looking owl hat I have ever found and the title, Realistic Owl Hat, is 100% accurate. As a veteran zookeeper I love accuracy in animal projects. They add a little punch 🙂
• I bought a loom kit and watched a LOT of loom knitting tutorials. But then of course to challenge myself further I decided that I needed to add the “advanced” skill of scale stitches to make my hat really look like a snowy owl.
• Thank goodness Scarlet Royal has a full length tutorial video that you gain access to when you purchase the pattern. I followed along with it to make sure I was on the right track.
• Because I decided to add the scale stitches, I ended up actually charting out the entire pattern in excel, highlighting the 4-stitch sections where I would need to make scale stitches along the way to help me keep track.
• There was a little bit of trial and error on stitching it together at the end but I ultimately prevailed and I think it turned out quite well!
• You can find the pattern by Scarlet Royal here!

Wand and Spellbook

• I love these wands! I first used this tutorial when I hosted a ridiculously detailed Harry Potter party for my friends many years ago. You can make them in bulk if needed and they only require paper, a little tape, hot glue, and paint. I added some clear sealer at the end to try to help it to hold up a little better. Find the tutorial on Dadcando !
• The spell book is a simple print out from the Lemonsqueezyhome blog

Roll your wand shape

… and secure…

Added a “gemstone” to the end for extra fun!

Start your design in hot glue

Keep on adding

Add your first layer of paint

Add some highlights…

…and done!! Finite!

Candy

• I found both printables at LittleFallingStar’s Deviant Art Page
• I printed the packages, pasted them to card stock and cut them out. For the Bertie Bott’s package I used double sided tape and small squares of plastic wrap to make the windows. I then heat sealed some Jelly Bellys into a sandwich bag and slid it into the box.
• I followed the same procedure to make the chocolate frog box (print/ attach to cardstock). I poured three chocolate frogs, using chocolate bark/ candy coating and a frog candy mold found on Amazon. I then heat sealed the frogs in sandwich bags. I put one in the packaging and two others in the wrapping paper with everything else so that my niece can refill the container twice.
• The wizard cards actually came from a couple of chocolate frogs I bought  a while back.

covering the windows with plastic wrap

melting the chocolate

pouring the molds

Scarf/ Badge

• I used a basic pattern by Sarah Bradbury
• I decided to knit it flat and seam because I didn’t have the right circular needles to knit it in the round and darned if i was going to do all this with double pointed needles! The red yarn was Berroco Vintage purchased at the Yarn Mart and the gold was Queensland Collection Brisbane purchased at the Twisted Purl in Conway, AR.
• The badge image was found on the Beautiful Channel blog. I printed the image, pasted it to poster board, cut it out and then hot glued a safety pin to the back.
• The wizard cap is something I picked up a while back in my apparent attempt to own everything Harry Potter.

No double pointed needles for this girl

the complete ensemble

To be continued….