Harry Potter Party - Great Hall floating "candles"

Great Hall with floating candles made from rolled 8x11 paper and "wicks" made from yellow paper. I don't know if anyone even looked up. LOL

DIY Harry Potter wands -- a better way

In the past few weeks planning for W's Harry Potter party, I've read dozens of blogs about DIY Harry Potter wands. I decided to use dowel rods (of varying diameters) and hot glue. I got the best glue gun of all time for this project, featured in HGTV magazine last month. In a word, awesome. The clouds parted and the angels sang. I've been using a cheap mini glue gun for years. This is bliss. 

I used a marble at each end of the wand, to lessen the chance of eyes being poked out. 

After they were dry, I painted them with M's acrylic poster paint, in varying shades for a natural look. 

They all looked different, which will be fun for the kids. 

For the girls' wands, I used gems for one tip and painted them purple. 

I will finish all the wands with a coat of Mod Podge glossy. Tomorrow. Right now I'm exhausted.  

Harry Potter Party Invitations -- The Cupboard under the Stairs

It took me forever to create the labels for W's Harry Potter party invitations. I wanted them to look like this:

I used a few different fonts, small caps, and font sizes to approximate the look.  Here's the final product:

Mr. W. Williams,

     The Cupboard under the Stairs 

I used Hogwarts Wizard in small caps for the first line, then Hogwarts Wizard in regular caps for the second line.  The "p" in cupboard is Freebooter Script. The word "under" is Wellsley.  I also made the "R"s capitals and made the size smaller.  I also made the "h"s a smaller size.  I made the font a dark green.  Whew.  So much effort for something no one but me will notice.