Invitation - Scroll delivered by owl

The invitation is almost as fun as the party.  Lots of great ideas out there.  We were fans of the parchment paper/wax seal versions but the owl format won us over.

There are some really cool examples that use white balloons for owls, filled with helium, clutching a scroll invitation.   Due to expense and hassle, we decided to forgo the helium and attach the owls directly to the scroll.

Here's sample invitation text to place on parchment paper (the logo background won't show up as white when you actually print it):

Get some brown jute twine and white balloons at the 99 cent store.

Blow up the balloons, grab a Sharpie to create your owl, and attach the scroll invitation to the owl "feet" (the tied part of the balloon) with the twine.

The fun part is the hand delivery!   The recipients LOVE having the invitation specially personalized just for them.

Wands - the making of

It's fairly cheap to make cool looking wands.  Walmart has round wooden dowels in assorted sizes for $1 per pack.  Other people have used chop sticks.  We used hot glue guns, black acrylic paint (we tried other colors but liked the black the best), and glossy acrylic spray sealer. 

The kids love to use the glue gun and shape the glue (once cool enough, wait until it's slightly cloudy). Painting the wands was more time consuming and tedious -- too many nooks and crannies.  Maybe spray painting would have been better?  Regardless, you can make these in one day.

Dowels with the glue designs added

Painted with black acrylic

And, finished with spray acrylic sealer.  Can you spot the Elder Wand?

Honeydukes Express Trolley Cart

Pizza was the main course, so all we made were treats for the Honeydukes Express Trolley Cart found on the Hogwarts Express, although we took some liberties.  I decided crudite had no place at Hogwarts. And, no one eats it anyway.  Kidney pie wasn't an option.

Licorice wands

Treats:

1. Acid pops (Dum Dums thinly dipped in honey - warm in microwave to thin - and rolled in Pop Rocks, do this just before - and I mean just before - the party so the Pop Rocks still pop and they don't melt off)
2. Chocolate frogs (mold from Amazon, used dark cocoa Wilton candy melts, stick in freezer for about 10 minutes and then pop them out of the mold)
3. Jelly slugs (Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers, stick 'em in a bowl!)
4. Licorice wands (Red Vines with tips dipped in white Wilton candy melts with sprinkles)
5. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (fake Jelly Bellies from Vons, another stick 'em in a bowl)
6. Butter beer (served at a set time as it involves whipped cream)

You don't really need recipes for the treats above, but here is an easy one for the Butter Beer:

1. Ice
2. Cream soda
3. Imitation butter flavoring (about 1/4 tsp per glass)
4. Homemade whipped cream (with a little powdered sugar, vanilla, and butter flavoring mixed in, I bet you could use Cool Whip but I just hate it)

Severus Snape's Potion Chamber

We used glass jelly jars and an array of non-edible and edible items for the potion making station.  

Ingredients:

-Plastic spiders to snip off legs

-Plastic troll eyeballs 

-Glitter (fairy dust)

-Couscous (Doxy eggs)

-Feathers (from a Phoenix)

-Wild rice (dried Mooncalf eyelashes)

Supplies other than the above:

-Jelly jars

-Blank labels

-Scissors, spoons

-Mortar and pestle 

Have your kids write the potion recipes and arrange the table!

 

Decor

After entering the house via Platform 9 3/4, we kept it fairly simple.  Every Halloween we decorate the ceiling with bats and a spider web anyway, so we did that a little early for the party.  We made a simple Hogwarts interior with stone backdrop and floating candles above the cake table.

Black crepe paper, construction paper, tape, and fishing line

We fortunately had a dining room light that looked a bit Hogwarts-ish.  I added a 99 cent brick backdrop and hung candles from the light, also from the 99 cent store.

Hagrid's Cake for Harry

Rubeus Hagrid made this cake a breeze.  No need to construct a Hogwart's castle out of fondant or the Weasley's house out of gingerbread.  The kids can make lopsided, misspelled cakes all day long! 

Pink icing with green lettering. 

What is the line/crack down the middle?  Does it represent the lightning shaped scar?  Is it where Hagrid sat on it and broke it enroute?

Hagrid's homemade cake for Harry's 11th birthday
photo courtesy trwrobot

Signage

Signs are a big part of the party, especially to clue people in who don't know every detail about Harry Potter's world.  Here are a few using logos off the Internet and a few quotes:

For the Honeydukes Express
Trolley Cart Treat Area

 

 

To hang above the toilets

 

 

To place by the lopsided, misspelled cakes

 

 

Example of treat sign

 

 

Children chose their own wands when they arrived at the party.  We were tempted to shine a light, play music, and use a fan to blow their hair back when they chose it...but we refrained.

 

Quidditch Pitch

Our kids have been wanting to play Quidditch for quite some time.  How do you make the field?  I found several tutorials using PVC pipe and solvent cement.  If you plan to play Quidditch every weekend, then these industrial strength courses are just for you.  If you plan to play for 30 minutes at a party, and re-use the hula hoops and garden stakes for other things, then this post is for you.

This version is often referred to as Muggle Quidditch, as, unfortunately, our brooms don't actually fly.

The Quidditch Pitch (Course)
Six garden stakes, six hula hoops from the 99 cent store, nails, and cheap Halloween brooms, under $40 in total

This is what you need:

1. Open field/yard (the Quidditch "pitch" or course)
2. One broom for each player
3. Six goal hoops (Keepers try to keep the quaffle out of the goals)
4. One Quaffle (the ball the Chasers throw through the goals to score)
5. Two Bludgers (Beaters try to hit other players with these balls)
6. One snitch (Seekers try to get this ball)

Each team has 7 players:

-Three Chasers
-Two Beaters
-One Keeper (you could add another keeper if you have more kids)
-One Seeker
(You need one referee to organize the mayhem)

How to play:

1. Place one Quaffle (largest ball) and two Bludgers (medium sized balls) in middle of field, hide the snitch somewhere in the yard (smallest ball)
2. Each team starts from their end and runs to middle to try to get their assigned balls (except the Keeper who stays by the goals)
3. Chasers try to obtain the Quaffle and score
4. Beaters try to obtain the Bludgers and throw them at the opposing team members
5. Seeker tries to find the snitch
6. Keeper defends goals 
7. When the snitch is found, that match is over, whoever has the most points wins

Rules:

-Each goal is 10 points
-The team that finds the Snitch gets 50 additional points
-Stay on your broom
-Don't throw Bludgers at the Keeper
-You cannot touch anything but your assigned ball
-If you get hit by a Bludger, you have to sit out for 10 seconds (kids can count themselves)
-If you were holding the Quaffle when hit by a Bludger, you have to drop the Quaffle and sit out for 10 seconds

Tip: Drive the stakes in the ground first with a mallet, then nail on the hula hoop.

Platform 9 3/4

The crest and platform number were printed on photo paper and affixed with glue.  Scrap wood and gold paint used for frame.

Platform 9 3/4 makes a great entrance.  There are several ways to do accomplish this.  An easy way to do this is to wrap your door or hang this plastic brick backdrop from your door frame. If you slit the plastic so people can run through the wall per Mrs. Weasley's instructions, "Do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous," tape the top of the slit so it doesn't rip. 

My husband decided to go bigger.  Disclaimer -- he actually does have a background in set design, so this was his contribution to the party.  He built a wood frame that would fit between our front pillars and wrapped it with muslin.  You could also get an old white or tan curtain panel and use a tension rod to hang it in the front door frame -- to avoid building the wooden frame.

After priming, he used flat red primer for the brick color using a template that he made from Trader Joe's bags.

Flat red primer

Muslin wrapped frame, primed and showing brick template

Stencils from Walmart were nearly perfect for the font. He used a piece of scrap metal for the sign itself, and spray painted it dark red with letters in gold.

Spell Book party favor

The cover, with Deathly Hallows symbol

Our birthday girl wanted to give a book of "Charms, Spells, and Curses from the Magical World" as the party favor.  We used the leftover parchment paper from the invitations and found this super helpful download for the spell pages.

If you have trouble figuring out how the pages go together (like I did for about half an hour!), here's how it goes...

After you download and save the spell pages from the link above, print them like this:

1. Print page 1, then flip the paper over and print page 6 on the back of it
2. Print page 2, flip, print page 3 on back
3. Print page 4, flip, print page 5 on back
4. Put the pages together so they make sense in alpha order by spell
5. Staple the spine a couple of times (you might have to fold the paper a little to get the staple to the middle)

To change the cover, I converted the PDF to MSWord and added the new cover title and image. We simplified and didn't do a separate hardcover or bookmark.  We used this Harry Potter font generator, too.