- Lightsaber making tutorial
- DIY Hogwarts Costume (this is a post from last year)
- Pumpkin Pasties Recipe (It's under desserts)
Anyway, Good luck and Happy Halloween!
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Happy Fandom Halloween!
Halloween is the ultimate holiday for Fandoms! It's the perfect day to dress up as your favorite character! I unfortunately haven't been able to post much this Halloween, but here are a few things you can use to make your Halloween more fandom:
- Lightsaber making tutorial
- DIY Hogwarts Costume (this is a post from last year)
- Pumpkin Pasties Recipe (It's under desserts)
Anyway, Good luck and Happy Halloween!
- Lightsaber making tutorial
- DIY Hogwarts Costume (this is a post from last year)
- Pumpkin Pasties Recipe (It's under desserts)
Anyway, Good luck and Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 23, 2015
Harry Potter Birthday Party!
This seems like an odd time to post about a birthday party since it's almost Halloween, but my little sister had a Harry Potter Birthday Party a little while ago and I forgot to post anything about it. Besides, many of these ideas most likely could be turned into Halloween Party ideas. Harry Potter is just the perfect fandom for Halloween! There's magic, ghosts, potions, witches and wizards, goblins, dementors, you get the idea. So, about the party . . .
For my sister's birthday, the invitations looked like Hogwarts acceptance letters. Here is what the invitations said:
There was also a 2nd Page which was the list of books and equipment:
These pages were folded up and put into cream colored envelopes, then I printed out the Hogwarts seal and stuck it on with tape. Addresses were written on when they were known and Harry's was used when they weren't (My sister handed these out herself, so it didn't make a difference.
For the party itself, we did several things. We set up one room as Diagon Alley and that's where all the girls bought their wands, spell books, pets, and potion ingredients with money from Gringotts. From there, Hagrid (my dad) passed out 9 3/4 tickets and the girls went on the "train."
I want to make a quick apology for lack of pictures. The day was a little stressful since we were behind schedule and picture taking completely slipped my mind.
Most of the Daigon Alley shops were pretty simple, and were mostly marked by the signs I printed and put up. My youngest sister was a goblin and passed out the Galleons (fake pirates gold). For the spell books, I made a google doc with several spells and two potions. The link to the doc is here.
I would have included more potions and spells, but even five pages, multiplied by 9 people coming gets to be a lot of paper. I also had to cut out each page and tape them in notebooks. It took a LONG time. In hindsight I probably should have just stapled the pages together and gone with that.
For the potion ingredients, they were just small jars full of assorted candies.
The wands were chopsticks that were a little more wand-like than most chopsticks. I also made little card things that told the wand wood the core type and I attached them. I wanted to use string to do this, but for lack of time I had to use tape.
I used gummy worms for shriveled worms, gummy frogs for dried frogs, Pures for Salamander Hearts, Honey for Flobberworm mucus, orange juice for billywig sting slime, grape juice for dragon blood, and pop rocks for crushed bezoars. The inclusion of pop rocks makes the potions really cool because they begin to make popping and fizzling noises.
For the cauldrons, we used large metal pots and bowls.
After potions, the next class was divination. We tried to do the milk, food coloring, and dish soap trick and have them look into the swirling dish, but it didn't work so well. The effect was alright enough to pass however, so the party went on.
Next was charms where the students were walked through a few spells then tested on them.
We also had astronomy, where there were several paper planets hidden around the room and the team to find the most won five house points, 2nd place got four, 3rd three, and 4th two.
After the games it was time for the end of year feast, where the cake would be eaten and the house cup awarded. The cake looked like the one Hagrid made for Harry in the first movie, of course with my sister's name instead of Harry's.
The house points had been kept track of on several paper hourglasses pinned to the wall. Once the points were tallied, Ravenclaw won and the members of that house got a cup full of candy.
The party was a lot of fun, though the planning portion could have gone better. The decorations for the party mostly were to make our house look as much like Hogwarts/The Wizarding World as possible. One fun thing was to print out Hogwarts portraits and put them up by the stairs.
I also would have liked to hang "floating" candles in the Great Hall, but I didn't plan enough for that. If you want to make the party have a Halloween twist you can hand floating jack o'lanterns up instead. That can be done by using small decoration jack o'lantern trick or treat buckets. Anyway, Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday to any of you Birthday People out there!
For my sister's birthday, the invitations looked like Hogwarts acceptance letters. Here is what the invitations said:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms/Mr. __________,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the celebration of ___________’s Birthday. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on October 3rd from 1:30 to 4:00 at ____________________, _________________, _________, _______ (address). We await your owl by no later than September 30th. It is also completely acceptable to reply by muggle telephone at ____________ or _____________(phone numbers).
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Equipment: (Everything may be bought at Diagon Alley)
- 1 Spell Book
- 1 jar of Assorted Potion Ingredients
- A Wand
- Uniform (Optional, to be brought from home) including:
- White Shirt
- black/navy blue sweater
- navy blue/black pants/skirt
- black cape/cloak
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKThese pages were folded up and put into cream colored envelopes, then I printed out the Hogwarts seal and stuck it on with tape. Addresses were written on when they were known and Harry's was used when they weren't (My sister handed these out herself, so it didn't make a difference.
For the party itself, we did several things. We set up one room as Diagon Alley and that's where all the girls bought their wands, spell books, pets, and potion ingredients with money from Gringotts. From there, Hagrid (my dad) passed out 9 3/4 tickets and the girls went on the "train."
I want to make a quick apology for lack of pictures. The day was a little stressful since we were behind schedule and picture taking completely slipped my mind.
Most of the Daigon Alley shops were pretty simple, and were mostly marked by the signs I printed and put up. My youngest sister was a goblin and passed out the Galleons (fake pirates gold). For the spell books, I made a google doc with several spells and two potions. The link to the doc is here.
I would have included more potions and spells, but even five pages, multiplied by 9 people coming gets to be a lot of paper. I also had to cut out each page and tape them in notebooks. It took a LONG time. In hindsight I probably should have just stapled the pages together and gone with that.
For the potion ingredients, they were just small jars full of assorted candies.
The wands were chopsticks that were a little more wand-like than most chopsticks. I also made little card things that told the wand wood the core type and I attached them. I wanted to use string to do this, but for lack of time I had to use tape.
Here is a picture of some of the wands after the party. I forgot to take a picture before.
Anyway, the pets were all owl and cat stuffed animals.
On the Hogwarts express, the girls all got use the rest of their galleons to buy some candy from the Hogwarts Express Trolley. Candy options included Bertie Botts Beans (Jelly Beans), Chocolate Wands (Pocky), Lollipops (should have been acid pops, but I ran out of time to make them. Recipe here), and Jelly Slugs (gummy worms).
From there, they were lead to the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony.
For the sorting ceremony, we used a costume witch's hat as the sorting hat and a paper bag with bits of paper and the houses symbols on each paper. Each house was going to be a team later for games.
The first class was potions. Each house had to choose a potion from their book and make that potion. Professor Snape (my brother) would then award house points for the best made potion.
The potion ingredients were all candy and I luckily was able to get a picture of the ingredient tray before the potion making started:
For the cauldrons, we used large metal pots and bowls.
After potions, the next class was divination. We tried to do the milk, food coloring, and dish soap trick and have them look into the swirling dish, but it didn't work so well. The effect was alright enough to pass however, so the party went on.
Next was charms where the students were walked through a few spells then tested on them.
We also had astronomy, where there were several paper planets hidden around the room and the team to find the most won five house points, 2nd place got four, 3rd three, and 4th two.
After the games it was time for the end of year feast, where the cake would be eaten and the house cup awarded. The cake looked like the one Hagrid made for Harry in the first movie, of course with my sister's name instead of Harry's.
Pumpkin juice was also served along with the cake and ice cream. I couldn't find any good last minute recipes, so I had to invent my own, which I think turned out pretty good. The ingredients are one can of pumpkin puree, enough apple juice to bring to desired consistency, and cinnamon to taste. Sugar can also be added if you want it sweeter.
The house points had been kept track of on several paper hourglasses pinned to the wall. Once the points were tallied, Ravenclaw won and the members of that house got a cup full of candy.
The party was a lot of fun, though the planning portion could have gone better. The decorations for the party mostly were to make our house look as much like Hogwarts/The Wizarding World as possible. One fun thing was to print out Hogwarts portraits and put them up by the stairs.
I also would have liked to hang "floating" candles in the Great Hall, but I didn't plan enough for that. If you want to make the party have a Halloween twist you can hand floating jack o'lanterns up instead. That can be done by using small decoration jack o'lantern trick or treat buckets. Anyway, Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday to any of you Birthday People out there!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
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