Harry Potter Party with lots of ideas

When my kids decided on their birthday themes this year they both picked the same theme “Harry Potter”. Even though my kids have 3 months between their Birthdays I got them to agree to a date in the middle so they could share the party and we could go crazy with ideas.

I have included some of the photos and the tutorials I created and used. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask me. Lots of the props were hand made, hours of time went into this party.

Dumbledore ($35.00) was on duty in the backyard making sure the students behaved themselves and was a great prop for the money as he filled a whole corner and added to the theme. The kids of course wanted to keep him after the party.

The telephone box was made by my parents they spent hours and hours creating it and it even came with a pretend phone and light inside.

The Whomping Willow tree – We grabbed an old branch and sprayed it black. We used it to hang off the take home bags (handmade cloth) and flying keys.

Giant Chess set – My little boy who loves chess was adamant we had to have a giant chess set. Unfortunately his Grandparents couldn’t get the pieces to come alive as per his request but they did a great job. (tutorial coming soon)

The Snake cake was made using a Bundt tin and I hand painted it with food coloring using a net to imprint the scales.

The Hogwarts Wall hanging was created using a bed spread from here and hung onto a curtain rod.

For the Potions table we printed off random labels we found on Pinterest (added them to my Pinterest board) and labeled old jars. We added plastic snakes, dried herbs and plastic bugs too. We filled a cauldron with dry ice for a smokey effect.

The gazing ball was created using an old ceiling light shade and I simply popped some glow sticks inside. Inspired by this one.

Diagon Alley was created using various online displays for inspiration. I created the Book of monsters (tutorial coming). The table was setup with old books and various book boxes I already had around my house.

We created a Ministry of Magic guest book which all the young wizards signed as they entered. Tutorial here

The Olivanders sign was printed from here. I just used the template file and printed it out on A3 paper. The wands were from Oriental Trading and were $8.50 for 12. We also wrapped some chopsticks and garden sticks up to create different wands. The wands were all wrapped in brown paper so the kids had to randomly choose.

For the signs around the party I attached a little Hogwarts wax seals for authenticity using this print out sheet.

The Harry Potter Quill was from ebay.

The spiders climbing the wall were from the dollar store and we used card board boxes wrapped in brown paper to create the luggage props. Luckily I have been hoarding the large sea chest for some years and once again it came into use. I used it previously on this mermaid party.

The Hogwarts Express sign was hand painted by the Grandparents as was the three witches sign. The Gryffindor Scarfs were off ebay as were the robes and ties.

I created the butter beer signs and you can download them from below. I used an upturned barrel planter to add some “pub” styling to the table. The ginger beer bottles were relabeled using the free printable labels I created below.

We created a Mandrake /Herbology potting table using an old garden potting table some pots and some flower bulbs. The mandrakes were hand knitted and the pattern created by the wonderful Grandma. Free Mandrake pattern here.

The Sorting Hat took much longer than I had hoped but the kids were very excited as it was the very first prop we made. We created a Sorting hat tutorial here for you to use. The flying candles were created using toilet rolls with a battery candle on top. The candelabra centre pieces on our Feast table are from Oriental Trading and were $8.50 for a set of 3.

Proclamation signs were printed from here and our own text added.

Spell books were created using this original image as the front page and created into a printable mini spell book Download.

Wizard Napkins were from Oriental trading and just $1.99 for 16 as I couldn’t justify over-priced Harry Potter ones (although now they are on-sale).

We filled our candy bags with disgusting sounding/looking candy.

We used dutch licorice and some pre-packaged goodies such as these: Candy Caviar , Gummy Ear Wax, Rat Lollipops, Gummy Rats. We wrapped eye balls in NEWT labels too.