Badge: Harry Potter — Magical Crafts

These crafts can be used for a Harry Potter theme or any magical /wizard theme you choose. Don’t feel limited what you find here and online. Make sure to incorporate your own ideas and imagination.

Steps

1. Wands.
Create a wand. Make these ideas your starting point. Add your own individuality, mix and match or create your own unique design.

Collect sticks outdoors and decorate with twine, feathers, etc.
Use pencils and punched shapes to make wands
Color doll rods, place foam stickers back to back and add glue and glitter to foam
Create chocolate sucker wands
Create wands with paper and hot glue per the “Dad Can Do” site

Your wand can be a stick only or you can add stars, snowflakes, pom-poms or more.

If you’re feeling very ambitious, try a technical approach and add LED lights you can turn on or other elements that add to the illusion that magic is real.

2. Quill and ink.
Make a quill — feather, bamboo or any other material you like. Experiment with ink recipes and find one you like to share.

3. Books.
Provide books, notepads, folders or any other way to hold items collected during the event. You can ask the kids make their own or decorate a purchased composition book. All flat paper items collected during camp will become a keepsake that can be included in your book.

4. Bookmarks.
Bookmarks for each house can be created from original drawings of the participants to materials that feature a specific house or wizarding theme. You can also choose to make “coloring sheet” versions for younger participants who are good at coloring but not at creating original artwork.

5. Runes.
Make a set of runes from air-dry clay or polymer clay if your kids are older. For younger kids, try creating runes by painting or drawing runes on wooden coins or rocks. Learn about runes so you can provide additional information.

See the “Harry Potter: Games” supplement SUPP_HPG_Runes.pdf for information on runes.

6. Crystal ball.
Create your own crystal ball. Use a baby food jar to fill with oil, glitter and water. Of course, you can put your own items in to your crystal ball. Find instructions for “snow globes” online and adapt these into unique crystal balls.

7. Witch hat.
Make a hat out of construction paper, felt or any other material you prefer. You may want to decorate them yourself or allow others to do so.

8. Magical pouch.
Create a drawstring handbag or pouch using whatever crafting technique you prefer. Decoration is optional.

9. Costumes and accessories.
Beyond a simple hat or pouch, try making clothing or accessories for yourself or others. Adults wearing appropriate clothing for their house, position, etc. Your costume may be as simple as a normal Muggle outfit with a couple accessories that don’t quite fit in a Muggle world. You may also choose to go all out and create a costume like Professor Sybil Trelawny.

10. Broomstick.
Find an old broomstick to alter into a magical one or create your own from raw materials.

11. Golden snitch.
From origami to knit, there are quite a few ways to create your own golden snitch. Find a pattern you like and make one.

12. Death eater mask.
Check out the Instructables Web site and others for ideas. Create your own mask, paint a paper plate or purchase pre-made masks.

If making a death eater mask is too dark for your group, try general mask making and call it “Transfiguration.”

13. Goblet / cup.
Decorate a goblet / cup with rhinestones, paint and other items to make it very fancy. You can also print out one of the Enrichment Project goblet drawings to decorate in the supplement SUPP_HPMC_House Cup.pdf.

14. Trading cards.
Create trading cards in the form of artistic trading cards. (See the AEP badge program “Artistic Trading Cards” for more information.) You can feature potion recipes, spells, poems, photos of the stars, original artwork and more.

For an additional idea, ask your participants to submit their favorite trading cards for an art contest and allow all other participants to vote for their favorite. You can award special prizes, points for houses, etc.

NOTE: Trading cards can also be a game after they are created. Before using originals in any game, make a copy or clear photo of the cards in case they are damaged.

15. SWAPs.
Look through SWAP sites to find Harry Potter themed ideas. Perhaps you have items already in your SWAP stash, so check that out as well. Some ideas might include:

Broomsticks
Wands
Crystal balls
Mini potion bottles
Beaded safety pins

A few SWAP ideas are included with the AEP supplement.

16. Your own magical crafts.
As you watch the movies or read the books, keep notes for any item you think you might be able to craft. Go back later and either elaborate on your design or create it.

17. Art influenced by Harry Potter.
Provide a variety of art materials. Ask your participants to create a piece of art based on the Harry Potter universe. For an additional activity, host a contest and ask your participants to vote on most authentic, strangest, etc.