How to DIY Harry Potter Wands and Spell Book

I am a big Harry Potter fan. Yeah yeah. I'm an adult, yes. But I love the Harry Potter series since my kids were little. I would read a chapter or two to them every night, and laugh right along with them as I read aloud. It was a special time, me reading to the kids every night. One that I cherish.

And as an adult, my love of Harry Potter has not subsided. It is such an interesting series. I am very much enthralled with how Rowling used actual Latin words as a basis for her spells, and even character names.
Did you know that Umbra means shade or shadow? That gives a whole new meaning to Professor Delores Umbridge, doesn't it?

Well, I have friends that are bigger HP fans than I am. Seriously, they can quote every scene and tell you which spell was used in which movie.



And last January I did this 'Pay It Forward' thing where the first five people to comment on my FB page would get a handmade gift from me sometime this year. I've managed to get three finished and delivered. One would think with simple math, I have two left to go, right? Wrong. I had a total of seven takers, and then I had to cut off the requests.  Apparently my crafting ability precedes me!

So, for two of my PIF winners, I made home made HP Spell Books and Wands.
Yup. I did.

And they are fabulous, and gorgeous, and they *loved* them so much, they each squealed with joy when I gave them.

How did I do it?
Well, first I found a website that had every HP Spell listed in alphabetical order. Then I typed up every spell, up to the 80 most popular. Then I found a Harry Potter Font and used that. I made a template in Word, where I could get four (4) spells on a single sheet and typed everything up. Of course I added in the pronunciation and wand motions and definition of each spell.

Then I printed it all up, cut every spell out, and inserted each spell into the slots of a pre-made, store-bought photo album from wally world.

I took some velum paper I had lying around and printed out the disappearing Hogwarts Express tickets.

I even cut them out with fancy edged scissors.

I placed the tickets inside the front cover using a circle of repositionable dots.
I also found a clip art of the Deathly Hallows symbol...

Then I took some sticky back clear paper and printed out the Deathly Hallows symbol, cut it out and placed it on the front of the book. I also took a permanent marker and drew the symbol on the binding, for fun.

Then it was on to the wands....

I wish I had pictures of the making of the wands, but apparently they have disappeared! No kidding, I had some pics of the wands in-progress, but I cannot find them now.
So a description of how I did them will have to suffice:

First I went out to eat.
No, seriously, I did. I went to Noodles & Co. and had some fabulous food, and brought home the chopsticks they give you.
I separated them, and painted each black. (I cheated when I made one of the wands (because I made three) and used a small dowel- but it took LOTS more glue to make a fat end and a tapered end!)
Then I took my handy-dandy glue gun (if you don't own one, I'm pretty sure there's laws against being able to call yourself a crafter!) and start gluing! I decided how far up I wanted the 'handle' to go, then went all the way to the end but made the handle the thickest part of the wand.

I let it dry, sort of. When cool enough to handle, I ran it between my hands to give it that roughed up look.
I also used seed beads and hot glue to make the interesting parts.
Once dry, I painted it brown (wood is brown, right?). And again. Some more. And I would really suggest you do this in BRIGHT light, because once you put your glue gun to the wand, and add seed beads, there's all kinds of nooks and crannies you never dreamed of. Once completely dry, spray with clear gloss.

Once complete, add a bit of glow-in-the-dark paint to the tip and you have a magic wand any HP fan will love!

**************UPDATE 6-26-17*******************
Someone let me know they couldn't get the zip file to download. Thought it could possible be because they were on their phone and not a computer.
Just in case, I've added a PDF of the spellbook to the same link below. CLICK the LINK and you have the option of a zipped file or a PDF.

Hope this helps!

*************UPDATE 10-18-2013******************
I've had many people asking about the spells in the spellbook. I am going to try uploading a zipped file that has my 'book' pages. I hope it works for you- I can't guarantee it since I do not know what I'm doing (zipping and uploading! wha????)

Click HERE  (opens a new site of mine where I keep zipped files)