Potter Party Part III: The Activities

Hey Potter Friends,

It's been a while!! Unfortunately sometimes life gets busy! This will be the last post regarding the recent Harry Potter party I threw and it's going to be all about the activities. I had a few different ones planned because although the majority of the people at the party were anywhere from their early 20s to 30s, there were a few in the form of nieces and nephews that ranged anywhere from 2 to 10 so we had to keep everyone entertained!!

One of the activities we played was "find the horcruxes." We hid all seven of the horcruxes in random places throughout the house and let people have at it! We made sure not to hide them in too difficult of places simply because we didn't want people having to tear apart the house to find them. We used a stuffed animal in the form of a snake for Nagini and a dollar store crown with blue jewels for the diadem. I don't have pictures of these ones but pics of all the others are below. I've been collecting prop replicas from thenoblecollection.com for quite a long time so I was lucky to have the majority of the horcruxes already. I did use the party as an excuse to purchase the Hufflepuff cup though :)

The kids really loved this activity and the adults really enjoyed "helping" the kids find them, though I'm pretty sure that was just their excuse for getting into it. All horcruxes were found which means, WE DEFEATED LORD VOLDEMORT!!! I meant to offer the framed quotes (pictured in the decorations post) as a prize for those who found horcruxes, but I completely SPACED!!

We also played a "Guess What Character" game. As people came in the door we put small pieces of paper on their backs, each of which had a different character from the books printed on it. You had to go around and ask "yes" or "no" questions to try and figure out who you were. This was a game that everyone enjoyed and it's a good way for people to mingle. We made sure to give the more difficult ones to the more...dedicated Harry Potter fan. They would eventually be able to get "Peeves" for example, but someone who may have only seen the movies once would probably need a name like "Harry Potter." 

The best activity by far was wand making. I don't think you're ever too old to make wands. I got the idea from this tutorial on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/112871534381963827/  It's really easy and the wonderful thing about it is that as you're doing it, you look at your stick with hot glue and beads and think it looks so strange but then once you paint it, it all comes together and they almost always look amazing. I've only ever seen one that didn't turn out well. 

In the tutorial they used chopsticks for the wands but I couldn't find any sturdy chopsticks. They were all the really thin ones that come in a package and then break apart, so instead I bought doweling in a couple different diameters and cut them with a chop saw. You can usually get two or three wands out of a piece of doweling, depending on the length. They were then sanded on a belt sander to give them that slight taper that wands have. Other than that the idea is the same as the tutorial on Pinterest, and if you don't have saws or sanders readily at your use, you can probably find nicer chopsticks if you look harder than I did. I gave up pretty easy. A couple other tips or facts-It can take awhile to paint them. Hot glue is rather glossy so it takes a few coats to cover it thoroughly and if you use beads, it can take a few coats to get in all the holes and little spaces. I would also finish with a clear coat of acrylic sealer as pictured below. It will protect the paint and make it feel nicer in your hand, without it it can feel rather chalky. 

In the picture below you can see the difference between the ones that were sprayed with a sealant and those that weren't. The grey one in middle HAS NOT been sprayed (it still needed a couple more coats of paint) and the ones next to it HAVE. You can probably tell just from the picture how much nicer the sealed one would feel in your hand.

We also had a bunch of board games and video games set up for all the other downtime. We had Harry Potter for the XBOX Kinect, Lego Harry Potter for the Wii, Harry Potter Scene It, Harry Potter Clue and a Quidditch board game. Between all the activities and all the food, everyone was well entertained, well fed and very fulfilled in all things magical. It was wonderful. I hope you get to have your own Harry Potter party soon and you don't even need a reason to have one. Just do it because you love Harry Potter!! 

Thanks for reading!

"When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, ' After all this time?' And I will say, 'Always.' -- Alan Rickman

Upcoming Posts:

"Pumpkin Pasties" recipe

My Trip to The WB Harry Potter Studio Tour: London

My Souvenir Haul From Said Tour

Potter Party Part II: The Decorations

Hey There Potter Peeps,

It's time for part two of my Potter party post! This one will be devoted entirely to the decorations. The decorations are what I spent most of my time on while prepping for the party, and even then I didn't get to do everything I had planned, or if I did, it wasn't to the EXTENT that I had planned. But nonetheless, I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out, and now that I have most of the extremely crafty and time-sucking projects done, the next party I have, because there WILL be another one, I should be able to do even more of the little things!!

I think this is one of my favorites when it comes to the decorations. The front entrance. When first reaching the front door we had the Hogwarts Express sign to welcome guests. Just in front of the sign were a bunch of letters that my brother was gracious enough to hang from the covering over the front porch. We also had an image of a brick wall that we used to cover the front door, unfortunately I didn't get a very good picture because we still had all of our Christmas decorations up and they kind of obstructed the view. The letters and the sign were pretty much awesome though. As cool as they were, I did want them to be slightly cooler. This is one of those times when I didn't get to go all the way with an idea. Originally I had wanted to personalize all the letters so that every person would have their own Hogwarts acceptance letter hanging from the ceiling that they could then take home with them at the end of the night. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but the letters addressed to Harry were definitely a good substitute.

Now, I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I did make the Hogwarts Express sign that's pictured just a ways down and I am pretty darn proud. I originally was just going to buy the one that they sell on Amazon because I knew making one would be time consuming and I still had a lot of other things to do...but when comparing the one that they sell to the one in the movie, I thought the one in the movie was just different enough and just better enough that I decided to make an attempt at recreating the movie version. 

Here is a still of the Hogwarts Express sign from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

And this is the sign that they sell on Amazon. As you can see, the colors are completely different (which is my main complaint) and it's branded with the "trademark" logo right after "Hogwarts." This sign is definitely still a cool thing to have though and if you're in a time crunch, it's still pretty much amazing as well as affordable. I consider myself a crafty person though, and if I see something and think I have the ability to recreate it, I have to give it a go, so I did!

This is what I came up with. Obviously it's not perfect because it's hand painted. If you look at the "s"s and the "r"s for example, you'll notice that they look quite a bit different from one another, that being said, I'm still 100% satisfied with how it turned out. I absolutely love the color of this one compared to the one you get on Amazon and I LOVE the moulding around the edge. Eventually I will try and post a template, dimensions and paint colors for this as well as tips, tricks and an overall how to.

Inside each of the aforementioned letters that were hanging from the ceiling, were a Hogwarts acceptance letter, a list of supplies and a Platform 9 3/4's ticket. This is another one of those things that wouldn't have gotten done if it weren't for a friend of mine who quickly printed these out and then cut them and stuffed them into the envelopes only minutes before the party started, giving my brother just enough time to get them hung before people started to arrive.

We had a stack of letters waiting just inside the front door as well so people could take those rather than having to pull them from the ceiling. 

Another one of my favorite decorations was really simple and I can't take any credit for them. I'm sure if you like Harry Potter and also like Pinterest, then you've seen the beautifully designed quotes floating around on there. They come from thereadables.tumblr.com and I personally have no idea what that means. I don't know if it's one person that designs them, or a team, either way, credit goes to them for the images. I simply printed them out and framed them in dollar store  frames. The quotes really are works of art though and they added a nice touch to the decor.

A huge shout out to www.lightsforalloccasions.com. Throughout the rest of these photos you'll notice a lot of different faux flame candles, lanterns and flame lights, all of which came from this site. We literally turned all of the lights out in the house and the only things to illuminate it were our indoor Christmas lights and the variety of faux flame candles. They really helped to create that Hogwartsy atmosphere. Just a tip though, especially if you're having a bunch of people over, DO NOT use real candles. One bump and you could have a massive problem on your hands. You don't want to end up with a scene like that in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. I suggest faux flame candles all the way.

Me being the psychotic person that I am, have collected an official theatrical release poster for every Harry Potter film to be released and as cool as it would have been to have 8 posters framed and lining the walls, I simply did not have that many frames on hand...or that much space. Instead I displayed the castle versions from the Sorcerer's Stone and the Deathly Hallows. I think they look pretty neat next to each other anyway. "The magic begins..." and "It all ends..." It brings a tear to my eye...............................and moving on.

All other available spaces in the way of mantles, bookshelves and cabinets, were covered with old books, potions bottles, wands, candles and prop replicas. I intended to cover books with book artwork from the films, but yet again, that was a project I ran out of time for. Instead I made sure to display books that had uneven pages, and displayed the pages toward the outside.

I absolutely love these flame lights. They're very similar to something you would see lining the walls of the great hall. I was really disappointed though that I didn't realize until the morning after the party, that I had forgotten to turn them on the previous night...so no one was able to enjoy them :( 

Once again, the flame light from above and the candles used below, were from www.lightsforalloccasions.com. I LOVED the candles hanging from the ceiling and so did everyone else! They even flickered! I linked the picture below to the webpage for the candles that I used, just in case you want to know where to find them :) Funny thing though, I purchased a bunch of blue fabric (the cheapest I could find) to drape from the ceiling to offer a night sky appearance, but once again I ran out of time to hang it before everyone arrived, so the picture below was actually taken the day after the party. We had the candles up in time for the party, just not the fabric, and since I had the fabric I at least wanted to get a photo, so I put it up despite not really having any reason to.

Here's another sign that I painted and then placed on the table with all the sweets and treats.

These next couple pictures aren't actually decorations, but I don't have much to post in the way of costumes so I thought I'd just tack it onto the end of this post. I went to the party as Luna Lovegood. This is the jewelry I made for my costume. It actually wasn't made for this specific party. I made it a couple years ago. But I love them. There's the cork necklace and her radish earrings. I'll probably post a tutorial on how I made these as well, though I'm not sure how long it will take. I have a lot of tutorials to put together! If there's actually anyone reading this and there's something specific that you want to learn how to make, let me know in the comments and I will give it priority. 

Thanks for reading!

"When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, ' After all this time?' And I will say, 'Always.' -- Alan Rickman

Upcoming Posts:

My Trip to The WB Harry Potter Studio Tour: London

Potter Party Part III: The Activities

Tutorials

Potter Party Part I: The Food

Hey Potter Friends,

So a few months ago I was extremely blessed in having the opportunity to travel to Europe. We hit seven different cities and five different countries in a three week period. It was super busy, super wet and super cold, but it was most definitely worth it. The last city we visited was London, England and as luck would have it, the WB Harry Potter Studio Tour had opened just a couple months before we went, so of course we had to schedule a pit stop :) I plan on writing a post about the tour (with accompanying photos) in the not too distant future. My whole point in mentioning the trip however, is that after experiencing the tour I've had Harry Potter brain 24/7, not that that's anything new, it's simply just intensified. I decided that I needed to act on this newly intensified passion for Harry Potter and throw a party. I mean, that's the logical thing to do right?

Let me just start by saying that I threw the party a couple days after Christmas and can I just say...BAD IDEA!! Never have I been so stressed out in my entire life, and that includes all the times I've procrastinated on papers in college. You think about all the stuff you have going on around Christmas time, all the activities, the shopping, the wrapping of presents, the making of food, the eating of food, and the family time! Then you add to that everything involved in throwing a party and it becomes madness really fast!! And believe me, I had been working on stuff for the party more than a month in advance and I was still running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything finished only minutes before guests arrived. The major reason for the stress though was that I had such a large number of people coming to the party that it meant a massive amount of preparation. Tip number one, keep your party small, or allow yourself a couple months of preparation, especially if you're throwing it at a time that might already be busy with other things.

So on to the party! In this post I am going to focus on the food of the party because let's face it, it's the most important part. I've got to give a HUGE shout out to my sister who slaved away in the kitchen the entire day before the party while I had to work. She made a large number of extravagant magical treats that I never would have been able to do without her. Literally. They just simply wouldn't have gotten done. I was so busy making mugs and decorations that although the party would have looked wonderful, there wouldn't have been anything to eat, and that simply wouldn't do. So thank you to my sister for her time and effort because without it there wouldn't have been any food, not to mention that it turned out so much better than it would have if I had had to make it, so once again, to her I extend a massive THANK YOU!

I'm going to start with the butterbeer because honestly it was the hit of the party. I was a little worried that people wouldn't like it because it can be really sweet, but it turns out I had no need to worry. In fact people were talking about how they wanted to dig into the bowl of butterbeer cream with a spoon it was so good. This is the reason why I so appreciate my sister and her skills in the kitchen. I made a test batch of butterbeer a couple of weeks before the party just so I could be sure I wouldn't poison anyone. The butterbeer itself actually tasted just like the stuff we had in London on the tour, minus the fact that I bought a cheap brand of cream soda and by the time I drank my butterbeer there was no bubbly...and butterbeer needs to have the bubbles. I was excited that the flavor was spot on and knew that with a different brand of cream soda it would be perfect. BUT THE CREAM!! I guess I just whipped the stuff for too long so when attempting to put it in my drink it just sort of went in clumps. It kind of reminded me of that scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams dips his face in a meringue pie and whilst making tea part of the pie falls off his face and splashes into the cup, except that my cream was much thicker. Ha! Anyway. Despite not being the perfect mixture between froth and cream as it was on the tour, the cream still tasted good so I wasn't going to worry about it. But as luck would have it, though it seemed more like stress than luck at the time, guests started arriving for the party and the butterbeer cream still wasn't made and I had yet to change into my costume, so as soon as my sister arrived with her kids I begged her to make the cream...and that is how and why it turned out so perfect, as can be seen in the picture below.

The other wonderful thing about the butterbeer were the mugs. I must say that I am pretty darn proud of those. They were the main source of stress during the party preparations as they took me several days to finish, set me behind on everything else and even made it so I didn't get to do some of the stuff I originally had planned for the party...but I think everyone liked them so that made it worth it. I'm sure you've seen tutorials for these mugs on Pinterest or in your surfing of the internet. They honestly aren't that hard to make and it wouldn't have been that stressful for me IF I hadn't had to make 25 of them!! I'll post a tutorial later on how to make the mugs, even though it's already all over the internet. I'll probably just add some tips and tricks I learned during the process. I'll also provide the recipe I used for the butterbeer, giving credit to its creator of course.

The next thing on the list that is definitely another favorite were the chocolate frogs. This is where I owe a huge thanks to that pesky little brother of mine that I mentioned in the previous post, though he's no longer little or pesky might I add. He stayed up with me till 5am the morning of the party, cutting, folding and hot gluing all of the chocolate frog boxes while I finished all of the butterbeer mugs. He was complaining that he started to get sloppy with the folding and gluing of the boxes, but in all honesty I think they turned out perfect. I love having a perfectionist for a brother.

We did place a chocolate frog inside a small candy bag and then inside each of the boxes, but we also had a plate of unpackaged frogs so that people could eat them without having to open their boxed ones.  Maybe no one would have cared if they had had to open them, but I'm the type of person that likes to keep that sort of thing and then display it on a shelf. My lovely sister whom I've mentioned several times was kind enough to make the chocolate frogs. She made solid milk chocolate ones for the boxes, and then got creative and put caramel in the middle of the ones that we left unwrapped and on a plate. They were delicious, but then I'm a sucker for chocolate...and caramel. I'll post the template I used for the boxes soon as well as what we used to make the chocolate frogs.

Fizzing Whizbees. I love how these turned out. Although they're not 100% authentic, I actually think I like these ones better than the official ones. The Fizzing Whizbees that you get at the studio tour in London are actually made of chocolate and are shaped like bees. I didn't buy any when I was there, therefore I've never actually tasted one so I'm not sure if the chocolate actually fizzes or not. When I first heard the name Fizzing Whizbees though, and before I'd actually seen what they looked like, "Fizzing" was what captured my attention, not the "bee," so I always pictured a candy similar to Zots. I don't know if you've ever had Zots before but basically they are a hard candy that has a fizzing center. I decided to forgo the bee and focus on the fizz and simply purchased an assortment of Zots candy that we then unwrapped and repackaged in small candy bags. This is another project that I was lucky enough to have help with. If it weren't for a certain friend of mine and yes, my mother, they wouldn't have gotten finished, so thank you! Template and info coming soon.

The most delicious treat of the night that ranks right up there with the butterbeer were the Pumpkin Pasties. I'm actually not sure what recipe was used to make them. I pretty much just told my sister what kind of baked goods I had in mind and then let her have her way with it. I did suggest that maybe she use our regular pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe, leaving out the chocolate chips and then taking two cookies and sandwiching them with a cream cheese frosting center. She did that, but she used a different pumpkin cookie recipe. They were SO moist. I could have eaten ten of them. I'll have to get the recipe from her so I can share it with you.

I've thrown a couple other Harry Potter parties before, though nothing as extravagant as this one, and one of the treats I've always made are Acid Pops. They're quick and easy and people typically love them. This time though I found Acid Pop artwork on therpf.com (the same place I found the Fizzing Whizbees artwork) so we printed out the Acid Pop labels on sticker paper and then stuck them on sucker bags. We also made sure to have some Acid Pops that were available to eat without the packaging, in case people wanted to keep them in their bags.

We used a traditional "no bake" cookie recipe and labeled them Cockroach Clusters.

Oreo truffles painted gold with edible spray paint served as Golden Snitch Truffles.

Apparently my sister saw this next one somewhere in her internet surfing, though I'd never seen it before. I thought it was very clever. You simply use some air pop popcorn and coat it with a green sugar mixture and...

I also got a bunch of candy that I just placed in jars and glasses around the table.

We had a couple other food items that I forgot to take pictures of and I'm still really bummed about it. Unfortunately that was the result of trying to get so much done so quickly. In fact, many of the pictures I did take were actually taken the day after the party, which is why there may seem to be so few of a certain item, such as the Fizzing Whizbees. The missing photos would have included cauldron cakes which were an upside down cupcake with the center hollowed out and then filled with white cream and embellished with a handle made of chocolate. There were pretzel wands, which has always been one of my favorite treats. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of them. We also had a couple of crock pots set out so that we could offer something savory to eat so that it wasn't all just sugar. One crock pot contained sweet 'n sour meat balls that we labeled Hogs Head Cornish Balls. The other crock pot had lil' smokies in BBQ sauce that we called Goblin Toes. There was a lot of good food at the party but the one thing that I simply ran out of time for, and I'm sure that you noticed was missing from the spread, were the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. I had the template for the box all ready to print out but we simply did not have time to cut them out and put them together. It was probably one of the most disappointing things in the food department. The only good thing that resulted from running out of time on those was that I saved myself a lot of money because Jelly Belly's are extremely expensive and having to provide enough for 25 boxes would have cost me a fortune!!

All in all I was very pleased with how all the food turned out and I think people really enjoyed it. I am extremely grateful for my sister who pretty much made EVERYTHING, and to my brother and a certain friend (you know who you are) who helped with the assembly of everything. Even my mom was a huge help on the day of the party by finishing the bags of Fizzing Whizbees and by bagging and boxing the chocolate frogs. The party literally came together at the very LAST possible minute and it wouldn't have been possible without my helpers so thank you!!

"When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, ' After all this time?' And I will say, 'Always.' -- Alan Rickman

Upcoming Posts:

Potter Party Part II: The Decorations

Potter Party Part III: The Activities