Now seriously, what is better than a magic wand? I'm of the mind that no childhood is really complete without one, especially for those growing up in the age of Harry Potter.
Of course wands of all shapes and sizes are available for purchase but making one yourself is an easy and inexpensive option that leaves room for customizing it to your little wizard's tastes.
I'll start off with what you need for a basic wand:
A wooden dowel (sold in any hardware or craft store)
spray paint
You want your dowel to be 5/16 or larger (any skinnier and it could snap fairly easy), you'll be able to get 3 or more wands per stick. The dowels come in 36 in. lengths, so 3 - 12 inch or 10 inch wands or 4 - 9 inch or 8 inch wands. Ours were 10 inches.
Measure, mark and saw your dowel down to size. The guy at the craft store was nice enough to cut mine for me, so don't be afraid to ask!
Apply some spray paint, let dry overnight and you're ready to start casting some spells!
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| Expecto Patronum! |
If you're looking for something a little fancier you can add glitter, stickers or ribbon to dress the wand up or go a step further and make a topper out of foam like the one below.
To start you want to cut some fun shapes from a foam sheet, we went with stars, hearts and butterflies. I found a super cool trick for cutting shapes out of foam if drawing them freehand isn't your thing, (it's definitely not mine!)
Find some cute cookie cutters and press them into the foam, then just cut around the imprint they make.
You'll want a front and a back piece, so 2 shapes per wand, then using a low temp. hot glue gun, glue the shapes to the top of the wand.
We used jewels, ribbons and glitter to add some sparkle to the finished product and now a wizard's wand has turned into one for a fairy princess!
Again feel free to stop here or go one step further and make my favorite part of this craft, a magic wand holder!!
I saw a variation of this in a craft book where they used a real picture frame. Now that is definitely an option, but since we didn't have an extra 12 x 5 inch frame lying around, I decided to improvise with what we had.
Here's what you'll need for this part of the project :
Exact-o Knife
Foam Board
Foam sheet (any color)
Plastic Stick-on hooks
Embellishments
Measure and cut an 11x5 inch piece from your foam board and one of the same size from your foam sheet. Using an Exact-o knife, cut the center out of your foam sheet, leaving about a 1 inch border. Glue the border to the foam board and stick on the hooks about halfway down the back and a few inches in.
-A note on the hooks, make sure the wand size you've chosen fits into them! I purchased the hooks first and took one with me to buy the dowel, 5/16 should fit with just about anything though ;)
Now all there is left is to decorate, stickers, glitter, shapes, sequins, anything you have that will make it AWESOME!!
To get the glittery look pictured, just paint the entire back with glue and cover with the glitter of your choice.
These are so light you can stick them up with regular old scotch tape or go with removable mounting squares for a little bit stronger hold like we did (they are boys after all!) I just love the way they look next to their beds, easily accessible for any magical emergency that might come up.
Have Fun!!
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