Harry Potter Wizard Wand (Tutorial)

I got the best compliment a few days after Ellie’s Harry Potter party. One of her friends hadn’t read any of the books or seen any of the movies. (I’m sure a few of her friends hadn’t, but this friend happens to be the son of MY friend so I was talking to his mother about it.) In the week leading up to the party, as her attempts to at least make him watch the movie failed, I had to reassure her that the party wasn’t so immersed in Potterdom that he would feel alienated. I’m trilled that she took a chance and brought him anyway, because (I think) he wound up having a pretty OK time! But the best part was the text I got two days after the party (TWO DAYS!) asking if I could lend him my copy of The Chamber of Secrets because he blew through The Sorcerer’s Stone in TWO DAYS and she only had the books in hard cover.

If I hear that NONE of the kids had a good time, and NOBODY got anything out of this party besides maybe a chocolate frog and some jelly beans, hearing that this party inspired an adamant anti-Potter-ist to pick up the book and read it in two days….well, I’m a happy momma.

One of the favors we gave out at the party were home made wizard wands and I’m going to share with you how I made them. I first came upon the idea of homemade wands from Sugar Bean Bakers. Since her wands were for teenagers and mine would be going to eight year olds, I hesitated to use wooden skewers or chopsticks and I think I came up with a safer solution for younger kids. They could still probably do a little damage if poked in one’s eye so I would definitely recommend supervision while younger kids play. And several weeks after the party my kids’ wands (even Ben’s) seem to be holding up pretty well.

They’re perfect to make for your budding wizard or witch. Older kids can even make their own. (My glue gun is a high temperature gun, if you’re making this with kids, I would recommend using a low temp gun and perhaps having them wear a thick glove, like a gardening glove, on the had that holds the straw.)This is what you’ll need:

• Work surface (for all painting projects, I usually cut open a paper grocery bag and lay it out on my table or counter. This way I can squeeze paint directly onto the bag and fill my brush from there.)
• Paper straws (one for each wand)
• Extra long lollipop sticks (one for each wand- I found these at Michaels) Cookie sticks will not work here, they’ll be too thick to fit in the straw.
• A hot glue gun and temperature appropriate glue sticks (about 1.5 per wand- I used a high temperature glue gun)
• Brown acrylic paint
• Sponge brush
• Styrofoam block (I use desert foam- available in the floral section of most craft stores)
• Rhinestones
• A small cup with glitter
• Tweezers (optional- I started out using them but found it easier to place them by hand *note- I burned myself on the glue a few times doing this*)

As you may have guessed, I made a few before thinking to myself “hey I should take some pictures!” and I didn’t decide to add the glitter until the very end.

1. Hold the straw in one hand and the glue gun in your dominant hand. Gently squeeze the glue onto the straw while spinning the straw around to wrap the glue strands around it.
2. I forgot to take a picture so I hope I can explain the next step coherently! Place a dab of hot glue on the tip of a lollipop stick and quickly insert it into the straw. Then run a little line of glue to seal the seam where the end of the straw meets the part of the lollipop stick that sticks out. You can see what I mean by “the part that sticks out” in the picture in step five.
3. Place the straws in a styrofoam block until they dry and are cool to the touch. You can tell they are dry as the glue starts out clear and becomes cloudy and a little yellow as it dries. 
4. Once the glue is dry, use the sponge brush in the brown paint to cover the majority of the straw. It works best to dab the corners of the brush into all of the nooks and crannies. You may need a second coat to cover it completely. At this point, I let it dry over night in the styrofoam blocks.
5. Once the paint is dry, use the glue gun to add gems (you can make them as plain or as fancy as you want) and cut the lollipop sticks to different lengths (optional). Then dip the part that is not yet covered in paint into the paint and immediately….
6. ….into a shallow cup of glitter. Allow the wands to dry completely. I stood them up glitter tip up in cups overnight.

So, that’s it. After a little trial and error, these were really easy to make. I hope you find it to be a fun project to get your kids making a little magic this summer. Maybe they’ll even be inspired to read the books!!!!! (You can read about the rest of the party here.)

This post is linked up at:

 

 

Harry Potter Birthday Party

At last! The day I have been planning for almost eight years has finally come! I finally got to throw a Harry Potter party!

The first thing I did was promise my husband I wouldn’t go overboard. The second thing I did was immediately go overboard. Come on, I mean it will be at least a few years before I get to throw another one, right? I’ve only just started reading the series to Ben.

We decided to have this party a few weeks early because Ellie’s cousins were visiting from Indiana and it’s been a while since they have been able to attend each other’s parties. Since it was still during the school year, I told her to go ahead and invite her class. Having a summer birthday, we usually only invite a few Girl Scout friends and some friends from camp. After narrowing down the list as much as possible, we wound up with a guest list of 36. ACK! So you can imagine I was thrilled that only 25 were able to come. 25 eight year olds in my house? Crazy you say?

Well, first let me tell you how the party went.

Invitations were sent out (via owl post, of course…. meaning I stamped the envelope with a rubber stamp image of an owl) informing students that they were invited, in honor of Ellie’s birthday, to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for one day only. They were to arrive at Platform 9 3/4 (aka… my house) at 10:30am.

From 10:30-10:45 students received their wands.

(Stay tuned for a tutorial!) (Update- Here’s the tutorial!)

Since we all know that a wand chooses the wizard, and not the other way around, I had the students sit in a circle on the floor. I held up a wand and my very generous and helpful cousin spun a bowling pin in the middle of the circle. When it stopped, the student it was pointing at took the wand I was holding.

From 10:45 until about 10:50, the students were sorted into their houses. I purchased plastic rings with the house crests and a sorting hat from Amazon. I placed all of the rings into the sorting hat and each student picked one out of the hat. (We had a small “pest” outbreak earlier in the school year, so I chose NOT to have each student place the same hat on their heads… just in case.)

Now that each student had a wand and a house, they gathered around the dessert table where Ellie led them in a round of the Hogwarts school song. Before the song, Ellie announced that Mr. Filch wanted the students to know that anyone caught waving their wand in another student’s face would have their wand removed until the end of the party. Sadly, Ben was the only one to have his wand removed. After the song, they proceeded to the dungeon  basement for potions and transfiguration classes.

I found this amazing site called madscience.org and they had a party package for “young wizards”. I called them, they were available, and I told them to take my money.

It was the best thing ever!

That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is 25 kids in my basement. Completely enthralled and hanging on their professor’s every word. (I almost wanted to call their muggle teacher and tell her how proud she should be!)

There was ice!

There was fire!

And during the demonstration where he showed the kids how to make fireworks different colors and then had to explain that he couldn’t make ACTUAL fireworks without setting my basement on fire, he politely resisted the chants of “do it! do it!”.

After classes, the students were dismissed to the dining room for pizza and cake.And cookies. The next planned activity was balloon Quidditch, but at this point I lost them. So I dismissed the students back to the dungeon to play with the birthday girl’s (and her brother’s) toys until their parents came to escort them back to the Hogwarts express. A few kids stayed to play Quidditch, but the snitch was quickly found and everyone was happy.

Along with the wands and rings, students took home an assortment of favors from Hogsmeade Village. They took home Chocolate Frogs (filled with Oreo truffle) and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans from Honeydukes. And an owl from Eeylops. (I KNOW, I KNOW Eeylops is in Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade!)

 

 

Throughout the party, I asked the kids to make funny faces while I snapped pictures. I used the pictures to make thank you notes for Ellie.

I will have a tutorial for the wands soon. If you are interested in the boxes I used for the chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Beans, I found templates through a Google search. I’m sorry I can’t share them, I’m sure I’m not supposed to. But with a little search, I know you’ll find what you’re looking for.

I hope the kids had as much fun as I did! And I hope you had fun reading about the party!

This post is linked up at:

Custom Candy Spooky Eyes

Oh my. I have started to write this post four times and erased it each time. I seem to be suffering from some writer’s block today! Well, without any long story then, I’ll just jump into what I made, ok?

I love using Wilton’s pre-made candy eyes on my cookies. I know how easy it is to make your own from royal icing, but sometimes I still get a little bleeding and I don’t always know the reason. Sometimes I’ll even get bleeding on only one eye out of three dozen. I’m not sure and since it doesn’t happen consistently enough to diagnose and fix the problem, I usually wind up just using the candy eyes and not taking a chance. Because who wants bleeding eyes?

 

I was excited to find larger eyes the last time I went to the craft store and I had a little fun dressing them up.

 

I used my Americolor Gourmet writers to make some fun colored eyes.

 

I also found that you can mix your undiluted food coloring to get an endless number of custom colors. Just use a small paintbrush (one that you save only for use on food) and paint away. Oh, and ignore what I said above about “bleeding eyes”…..

 

Or bloodshot eyes.

Once I had an assortment of fun and spooky eyes, I simply iced some basic oval cookies with black royal icing and dropped the candy eyes onto the icing before it dried.

 

For even smaller eyes, I used large sugar beads and drew on the pupil with a black food color marker.

 

The above is a dramatization of my eyes during and then after a long night of cookie decorating.

 

And the above is an example of a way to use cookies to freak out your seven year old, or at least her American Girl (I DO want my kids to sleep at night!). Poor Rebecca.

And if we even needed more proof that great minds think alike, go check out what my friend, Melissa at Simply Sweets by Honeybee, was making at the same time I was making these cookies…. I promise we didn’t even PLAN this. But she has a really delicious spin on making your own spooky eyes and a fun way to use them. And- the spooky eye cookies under the bed picture was her idea.

All American American Girl Birthday Party

It’s been two weeks and I think I have finally recovered from post birthday party burnout! Or post PRE-birthday party burnout, actually. Go go go go go go PARTY stop open presents clean up write thank you notes and practically before the last guest walks out the door, she’s requesting the theme for NEXT year’s party. Whew.

Before I share the pictures, I should probably explain something. I did this one to myself.

A few months ago, Ellie was invited to perform with some Broadway actors in a fundraiser for her summer camp. She, along with seven other campers, sang “For Good” from “Wicked”. On stage. In front of A LOT of people, some of whom perform on Broadway regularly. Have I ever mentioned how much I admire my daughter?

Around the time of the performance, she developed an obsession with the show “Wicked” and begged us to take her to see it on stage. A trip to NYC was just a bit out of our budget at the moment but it just so happened that Wicked was going to be at the Academy of Arts in Philadelphia in July. Although this is still out of our budget, it wasn’t quite as damaging since it’s only about 20 minutes away: we could eat dinner at home and avoid the inevitable  (and bank account draining) trip to the American Girl Store. So we agreed that this would be her birthday present AND her birthday party, bought our tickets, and had one happy little soon to be seven year old on our hands.

She LOVED the show. Everyone within three rows of us knew how much she loved the show by the way she stood up at intermission and said, in the loudest voice possible “I LOVE IT!”

And I was so proud of her, and she was such a good sport, and she didn’t even ASK if she could have a party. So I offered to have a handful of her friends and their dolls over for a small tea party. And we all know I am incapable of keeping it small.

For lunch, we had tea sandwiches, both girl and doll sized, and lemonade, both yellow and pink.

The cake I made was chocolate with vanilla meringue buttercream and a layer of fresh strawberries. I still dream about it sometimes.

Both girls and dolls had vanilla cupcakes.

And both girls and dolls had cookies.

There were party hats for both girls and dolls.

And both girls and dolls left with party favors. Matching cookies and seed bead bracelets.

The girls used puffy paints to decorate tee shirts for themselves and handkerchief dresses for their dolls. They also made doll sized cupcakes out of pompoms and mini cupcake liners. But their favorite activity was simply playing with their dolls.

The non-party was, in my opinion, a success.

Fruit Salad (To Go)

Remember, in science class, learning about saturation? I remember hanging a piece of string in a glass of sugar water, adding more sugar, and watching as, over the course of a few days, the sugar left the sugar/water mixture and clung to the string. What I’m trying to say is that I feel like that sugar/water mixture, and if you hang a string near me, in a few days you’ll have rock candy.

I guess that’s what happens when you have Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas/Hanukkah, followed by New Years, followed by Valentines Day, followed by your son’s third birthday! That’s why when Ellie was “star student” the week following her brother’s birthday, I decided to NOT make cookies or cupcakes to send in. (Sorry first graders!)

These treats were a big hit with the class, despite the lack of added sugar. Just a warning, though. You’ll want to prepare them as close to snack time as possible. The shelf life for these is pretty much non existent.

Ingredients:

(Makes about 12 bags)

• 12 strawberries
• 6 easy peel clementines
• 3-4 bananas (depending on size)
• 1 1/2 pears
• about 96 blueberries
• about 72 grapes
• 12 cellophane dipped pretzel bags
• ribbon

1. Cut your fruit- you should get about 4 chunks of banana per fruit (depending on size) and about 9 slices per pear (note- if your child’s class is allergy  sensitive, lay wax or parchment paper on your counter and use a plastic knife. The pears can be difficult to cut, so I cut a few slices with plastic, and packaged them with a different color ribbon so I knew which bags they were in. Then I switched to a regular knife. If you need to make sure all fruit is safely cut, you could always substitute green grapes for the pear.)
2. Place fruit in bag according to the rules of ROY-G-BV: about 6 grapes, 8 blueberries, 1 pear slice, 1 banana chunk, 1/2 clementine, 1 strawberry (halved when needed- there were some mutant huge strawberries in that container!)
3. Tie with a ribbon.
4. Serve immediately.

Just a little note. I tend to try to buy organic where I can. In this case, the grapes and bananas are non organic. I know it tends to be more expensive, and in some cases harder to find. Just do what you can, where you can.

And I am definitely not off sugar for good! I just needed to take a little break from it, you know?

I’m linking this up to Simply Sweet Saturdays at Simply Sweets by Honeybee.

 

This post is also linked up to Party In Your Pjs at The Cookie Puzzle and Simply Sweets by Honeybee

Fang Cookies (And How To Make A Cute Card Using Picmonkey)

Yay! I figured out how to take a screen shot! And double yay! My toothache did NOT require root canal (yet…)! And, yes, the two subjects are related!

I’ll start with the toothache. Here’s something you never knew about me. I never learned to put my hands up in front of my face when I fall. As a result of this, I have broken my two front teeth more times than most people break dishes in their sink. The first time I fell, I was seven and I tripped in the parking lot of the old Vet Stadium leaving a Phillies game. Since then, I have progressed from small tooth colored fillings, to veneers, to full on crowns. That’s a lot of trauma for two small front teeth. Two weeks ago, I started feeling a little achy and I had my mom take an xray. My dad thought he may have seen a small abscess at the root of one tooth and suggested I visit a friend of his, an Endodontist (or root canal specialist) to check it out. He was pretty sure my poor tooth had had enough.

I called on a Thursday and made my appointment for that Monday. To keep my mind busy, I made the endodontist some cookies.

Then I played around in Picmonkey and came up with a cute card to go along with the cookies.

I’m going to try my best to show you how I made this. (Bear with me, I just figured out how to take a screen shot on my MacBook and I either went nuts and took too many pictures, or I didn’t take enough to get my point across….)

The very first thing you’ll need is a blank white picture to use as your base. I followed this tutorial from Something Swanky.

Now, upload your blank canvas to Picmonkey.

See the little Jack-O-Lantern on the bottom left? That is where Picmonkey is keeping it’s cool Halloween effects.

 

 

 

Click on the Jack-O-Lantern and it will bring up the categories of Halloween effects. I used Vampire and Trick-or-Treat to make this card.

Click on Vampire and choose your background from Textures. After you choose your background, hit apply.

From here, I went back to the categories and chose “Trick or Treat”. Then “Scary Silhouettes”. After you chose your silhouette, hit apply.

I went back to “Vampires” to add my text.

 

Then I added a Bat from “Overlays”.

And… I forgot to get a screen shot of the final card. Well, you get the point, right? When you are done, click on the icon above your picture that looks like two layers with an arrow pointing downwards. This will merge all of your layers onto your blank white picture (you can also do this after each layer is added). Then you can save the picture by clicking on “Save”.

Oh, and it turns out that the ache in my tooth is most likely just due to repeated trauma (I am sure I was hit in the mouth by the back of a two-year-old’s head at least 15 times in the past two months). And, although I am sure the root canal is in my future, I was allowed to leave the office with only a warning, “Stop getting hit in the teeth”.

 

My Photo Space

September is a really busy month and it’s hard to find the time to keep up with all things online. Looking back at last September, I was really slow on my page then, too. Sometimes it takes an invitation to share to motivate me to produce something to share.

 

These cookies were made kind of last minute at night, and I didn’t think I would even have a chance to photograph them. But, as you can see (and you are too kind to point out), I had some overflow to the right side of this cookie:

and when I was experimenting to see if I wanted to add a star, or leave the “extra cookies for siblings” blank- I chose blank- I wound up with this cookie that I did not want to give to my friend.  Then when Georganne of LilaLoa asked to see everyone’s photo areas, I decided that this was the perfect cookie to use to show you my space.

I don’t have a light box yet, fancy or homemade. It’s on my list, as I have a big work area in the dining-turned-craft room that would be perfect, but the room gets no natural light. I make almost all of my cookies at night, so having a light box would let me make more tutorials, so maybe I should push it to the top of the list. For now, this is my set up.

 

1. This is the area I use most often.
2. My favorite cookie photographing plate.
3. Sometimes I need a larger space, so I’ll spread everything out on some scrapbook paper on the floor by the open front door.
4. My big bag of scrapbook paper.

Typically, I use the corner by the window.

 

1. My kids’ toys are perfect for propping up the plate to get a better angle.
2. If too much of the wall behind the cookie is showing, and the grey doesn’t quite match, I’ll use a piece of scrapbook paper in the background.
3. Sometimes, I’ll throw something under the cookie if it coordinates.

Once I take the picture, it sometimes sits on my camera card for weeks. Eventually, I upload it to my computer, and I used to stop there. Then The Bearfoot Baker posted about this awesome {free} photo editing site- Picmonkey.com. I use it now to touch up my photos, add a watermark, and make collages.

 

After I upload my picture to the site, I auto adjust, then touch up the brightness a little bit more. Then I’ll straiten it out and crop it. Last, I’ll add a watermark, then save it to my computer. Very easy.

Well, Bryan got an unexpected day off today, so I think we are going to go apple picking now. I hope where ever you live, the day is as beautiful as it is here!

A “Cookie Monster” Birthday

So much preparation for a little birthday party! The past week has been a blur of icing, frosting, flour, butter, sugar, and vanilla.

At the time that I picked the theme for his party, Ben was into two things. Cookies and Cookie Monster. So I decided to go with “Cookies and Monsters”.

My sister in law, Wendi, made the invitations. At the time, these were the colors I was going with, but as the party evolved, the colors changed. As it turned out, Wendi made a LOT more than just the invitations.

We had the party at My Little Adventures. It is a local kid’s gym that also offers many classes for kids up to age six. We were so happy with the party itself. They really went above and beyond to make the birthday boy, his sister, and every single guest feel special.

Isn’t the shirt cute? Wendi made that, too. I had actually ordered a shirt from an Etsy store back in January, and at the last minute (meaning last Tuesday) I got a email saying she couldn’t complete the order. Oh well, Wendi saved the day and I LOVED it! Here’s the back:

Now, I’ll bet you’d like to see the treats?

Here’s a close up of the cake:

And here’s an even better shot:

The inside was polka dot, but it was cut up and handed out before I could get a good picture.

Can you see the polka dots? I got the idea from this post that I found via Pinterest. I baked up some blue, green, orange, and yellow cake pops in Wendi’s Baby Cake Cake Pop machine (there’s Wendi, saving the day again!) and baked them into   the cake. I used Sweetapolita’s chocolate cake recipe and got so many compliments on it. It’s definitely my new go to chocolate cake recipe! I topped it off with some cake pop eye balls like this cake, also found via Pinterest.

To make things a little less messy for the two-year-olds, I made some monster cupcakes.

So, I’m not kidding. I said before I have been having computer issues, and my lap top just decided to freeze me out of my photos. So I will have to let the computer rest for a little bit and hope I can get in there later to share the cookies and party favors.

Halloween!!!! (And My Kids Are Going To Hate Me For This One Day) (Day 31)

Since I was in total DIY mode this month, it should come as no surprise that I decided to make my kids’ costumes this year. Ben was simple. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was the theme of his first birthday party, and it is still the book that makes his eyes light up when we read it at bedtime.

Yes- he HATES the hat. I wasn’t going to piss him off even more by trying to wipe his nose for the picture. Sorry.

Ellie was a little more difficult to please. About two months ago, we read Charlotte’s Web together. That was when she decided she was going to be Fern (the little girl who raised Wilbur the pig). I could not budge her. We read Pippi Longstocking just so I could try to convince her to dress as Pippi (an easily recognizable character) and, even though we spent a month reading all three original books, she still wanted to be Fern. So what could I do other than sew a plastic spider to her stuffed pig and dress her in jeans, a tee shirt, and pig tails? So that is what she wore to her Girl Scout’s Halloween dance. There, she was disillusioned by her costume when she didn’t win a prize. She then decided she wanted to be Ella Enchanted. Well, not only was I over my budget for extras this month, but there was no way I was spending the weekend before Halloween searching costume stores for something that might work. Then I remembered I had a sheet that had ripped, which had accidently found its way back into the linen closet instead of the garbage.

A skirt, a cape, and a tiara later and we have an Ella Enchanted. (Yes, it needs to be ironed, no, I’m not promising I am going to do it.)

So, on a completely unrelated note, I burned dinner the other night. So we had pancakes instead. Pumpkin/chocolate pancakes. And I have a recipe for you. (Happy Halloween!) (Adapted from Better Homes And Gardens Kid Favorites Made Healthy)

Pumpkin:

• 1 c flour
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2-1 tsp pumkin pie spice (per your taste, I wound up adding more so I could taste the spice over the chocolate)
• 3/4 c milk
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In one medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spice)
2. In another small bowl, mix together wet ingredients (milk, pumpkin, egg, and oil)
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined. Set aside.

Chocolate

• 3/4 c flour
• 1/4c cocoa powder (I use unsweetened, you could use sweetened, but then I would adjust the amount of sugar)
• 1/4c sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 c buttermilk (or 3/4 tsp vinegar + enough milk to fill to 3/4 c. mix together and set aside for 5 minutes to allow milk to “sour”)
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt)
2. In a small bowl, mix buttermilk, egg, and oil.
3. Add liquid ingredients to dry and mix until combined.
4. Heat griddle or pan and spray with cooking spray. When water flicked on the surface bounces around, scoop a tablespoon of pumpkin batter onto the pan and immediately add a tablespoon of chocolate batter on top.
5. When bubbles start to rise to the top of the pancake, flip over and cook for another 2 minutes.
6. Remove from heat, cool slightly and enjoy!

Ghost Toast (Day 4)

This was a really easy one. Ellie picked it out from Disney Family Fun Cooking With Kids Halloween Treats (sold in the dollar section at Target). After I toasted the bread, she made the entire creation by herself.

You’ll need:

• 1 slice of bread (toasted)
• cream cheese
• decorations (we used Fruit Loops, the original recipe calls for raisins. I was planning on using chocolate chips, but when my husband picked up some coffee from 7-11 for me before he left for work, he also picked up a cup of Fruit Loops as a special treat for the kids. Sad that in my house, Fruit Loops are a special treat, while chocolate chips are almost boring.)

Spread cream cheese on the toast:

Cut out a ghost shape (I couldn’t find my ghost cutter and we were running late, so I actually used the most ghost-like shape from this collection):

Then use decorations to add a face:

So easy!

Yes…. there will be cookies this month, I promise! I actually think I may let Ellie loose with her first decorating bag.