I am so excited to share with you this tutorial on how to make your own Harry Potter wands. It has been months since this party actually happened, but if you are looking for tips on how to throw a Harry Potter party I have so many fun tips to share with you HERE and make your own robes out of a t-shirt HERE.

Traditionally, a Harry Potter party is reserved for children, and when I say children, I mean it isn’t usually thrown for a one year old! I think the first year birthday is often times celebrated for the parent. YOU MADE IT! You have now been through one of the hardest stages of baby life that comes with so many highs and a few lows, and for me I wanted to celebrate Harry Potter style because I am an absolute nerd.

You will Need:

(3-4) 1/4″ dowels, this number will depend on how many wands you want to end up with. I actually found that you can buy them pre-cut on AMAZON HERE!! Woo Hoo

hand saw or strong knife

brush/sponge brush

Hot glue/glue sticks

jewels (optional)

craft paint: I used black, grey, brown, purple, and pink

paring knife

sandpaper

beads

sealing spray like poly acrylic spray so the paint doesn’t peel

Instructions:

I spent a lot of time going through different options on how to make my wands. You could use plastic, skewers, sticks or dowels. Originally I was planning to use skewers but couldn’t find them any where. I knew I was going to have a crowd of kids and didn’t want to spend too much time or money making them. I was thrilled when I found 1/4″ dowels in the craft section that I could cut to the size I wanted and they were less than a dollar a piece. SCORE.

Cut the wands to the length you would prefer, I made mine close to 10-12 inches.

Use a paring knife or pocket knife to make one end of the dowel pointier than the other. I didn’t make them too pointy as I knew they would be used by small people and didn’t want anyone at risk of losing an eye. The fun thing about making wands is that they can all be different and wonderful, having unique features/lengths is what makes them so fun!

Next you will want to mix your paint into various shades of color in preparation for painting your wands. I used a variety of colors and made some a little more masculine and some a little more feminine. Before painting I also used the hot glue to create “vines” down the edge of the dowel as well as made the blunt end thicker with glue to give it more of a gradual thickness from the top to the tip. I wish you could see the detail better in the picture below, but I took the pictures quickly.

On some of the wands I actually hot glued beads together in lumps to make the wand appear lumpy. This was the technique I used to make a wand that looked like Voldemort’s wand. I also added jewels to the back end of some of the wands. Feel free to make knobs with your hot glue as well, it is amazing how much character the glue gives the dowel and transforms it into something beautiful once the paint is applied.

As part of the party I actually had my brother dress as Ollivander to go through the process of the wand choosing it’s owner. This had to be one of the best parts of the party. Once the wand was selected my sister in law would flicker the lights and make the light turn on in the whole room. My brother really hammed it up and made it magical.
I would suggest that you seal your wands with poly-acrylic so that the paint will not chip away. This made for such a fun party favor and the kids loved playing with them that night and at home! Make sure to check back for the rest of the party reveal!

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Make a Harry Potter robe out of a T-shirt!

                                                                                      Harry Potter Party planning and Ideas