Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Harry Potter Party

I hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July!  Now that we're done celebrating, it's time to get down to business...  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, is being released in only 10 days.  :) 

I am a serious Harry Potter fan.  I started reading the books in my early 20s and fell in love.  My boys have caught the bug, too.  One of my 8 year olds has read all of the books, the earlier books at least 5 times each.  He has bought himself his own copies of many of the books so he doesn't have to share them and can read them as often as he likes.  The older boys have even taught the 3 year old some spells.  There's not much cuter than a pudgy little boy pointing a tinker toy at you and shouting, "Ex-pewo-ee-armus!"  That's Expelliarumus, for those of you who don't read 3-year-old.  :) 

So, of course, our family enjoys having Harry Potter fun whenever we can.  We had two Harry Potter parties in the last year.  First, for the movie release back in November, and then this spring for my twins' birthday party.  The movie party was for the adults (and teenagers) who were going to the midnight release showings. 

Since some of you are probably planning movie release parties of your own, I'll show you what I did for my last movie release party.  (I'm tweaking an old post I wrote about it on my family blog before I became a craft blogger.  So, the pictures are less than stellar, and I'm lacking a few sources.  If anyone recognizes a source, give me a shout-out and I'll post it.) 

I sent out invitations that looked like the letters Hogwarts sends out to let kids know they've been accepted. I even had Harry Potter style fonts (Lumos and Harry P from dafont.com).  (Minerva McGonagall's signature from The Leaky Cauldron)

 

I had a fun time decorating and doing the food for the party. I made 36 Gryffindor scarves out of gold and maroon fleece.  I sewed together alternating strips of gold and maroon until it was long enough to be a scarf, then cut in the opposite direction to make striped scarves.  It was a fair amount of work, but much less than if I'd sewn a million little squares together.  We had enough no-shows from the party that I had left overs to give out as party favors at the birthday party the next spring.

I turned joke glasses into Harry Potter glasses by removing the nose and cutting off the eyebrows from the glasses.  Way cheaper (at around $2 for 12) than ordering similar Harry Potter glasses from a party store.

I made house banners out of felt and iron-ons made from graphics I found online.



I even turned my porch into Platform 9 3/4, with a red brick "wall" made from felt hanging from a shower curtain rod over my doorway.  (Idea for the wall from Martha Shmartha.)
I was pleased with the fun food I came up with.
I made pumpkin pasties, which turned out really, really yummy.  I just mixed canned pumpkin with some sugar, nutmeg, and allspice.  I made my favorite pie crust and cut it into circles.  I put a dollop of pie filling inside, folded the circles in half and crimped the edges.  I baked them about 10 minutes at 350, I think--it's been awhile and I didn't think to write that down.  Ooops.  :)  I made a glaze of powdered sugar and water and brushed it on after they'd cooled. 
I found labels online (which I've sadly lost the link for, so I can't credit the designer.  If anyone recognizes them, let me know!  *EDIT* They are available here.) for butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks, and The Hog's Head Tavern, that I printed off and taped to IBC cream soda:


We had Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Pretzel and Licorice wands, Dumbledore's lemon drops, and Chocolate Frogs (which I made from melted chocolate chips with a frog mold I bought at Hobby Lobby).  And, we had Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, which were really Jelly Belly's Bean Boozled beans, so they really were every flavor, including Baby Wipes and Centipede.  I was most excited about the Fizzing Whizbees, which were the new Fizzl'd Fruits Skittles, which have a Pop-Rock-like powder coating on them, so they actually fizz. 
The decorations were mostly the banners and Harry Potter movies and books (as well as the Entertainment Weekly with the Harry Potter cover) displayed around the house.  But, I did add this cute little sign and this owl, which is actually a Christmas decoration I found at Target.  And, we had a House Cup, filled with Gringott's Gold (ie, chocolate coins) to go to the winning team in the Harry Potter Trivia Challenge (Gryffindor won, which I thought was appropriate). 
I also printed out some movie posters, including the fun Undesirable No. 1 posters you could make on the movie's website, with my party guests' faces in them.  And, I bought a cheap Halloween broom and had it float (hang from fishing line) in the living room next to a Broom Parking sign. 

After the food and fun, we headed to the movie theater for the midnight showing. 

To adapt it for a kids' party, I pretty much added some kid-friendly games and made a birthday cake instead of some of the other food I'd made for the first party.  I reused most of the decorations.  It made for a pretty easy home birthday party!

I made a simple sheet cake with a lightning bolt on top for the birthday cake at our Harry Potter Birthday Party.  It wasn't very well decorated, but it was a busy weekend and I ran out of steam.  You can still see the crumb coat (I ran out of frosting and decided the kids wouldn't care.)
We had Butterbeers again.  The kids had never heard of cream soda.  Weird. 
The treat bags.  I printed the Harry Potter logo on plain lunch sacks.  Inside were Harry Potter silly bandz, Harry Potter stickers, HP glasses, and candy of their choosing from the candy jars by the cake.  They also each got a homemade (leftover from the other party) Gryffindor scarf. 
No, that's not a "flying ring" taped to my wall.  It's an Indoor Quidditch hoop!  They had to get 3 quaffles (nerf balls) through the hoop. 
We also played "Pin the Scar on Harry."  And, the entrance activity (as we waited for everyone to arrive) was to draw pictures of Hogwarts.  (Don't laugh at my drawing ability, or lack thereof!  :) Drawing is NOT one of my talents.)

So, there you go, my two Harry Potter parties.  I won't be throwing a Harry Potter party this year, since we've got other things going on this month, but you can bet I'll be seeing the movie on opening day!  How about the rest of you Harry Potter fans?  Are you throwing midnight release parties? 

These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.

22 comments:

Unknown said...

Really great ideas! Almost makes me want to throw a party together for the premiere. I may at least make scarves for everyone to wear when we do make our way to the movie.

Unknown said...

Love all your ideas, great job! I would love to have a party like this for the opening unfortunately there aren't many ppl I know that love harry potter like me lol, crazy isn't it? Maybe when my son is a little older I can steal some of your ideas :)
lisa @
lisasalwayshomemade.blogspot.com

Suzanne said...

You are a real fan and anyone invited to your parties should consider him or herself very fortunate!

Brittany @ My Decoupaged Life said...

What great ideas! I'm glad you linked up to Tatertots and Jello!

Emily @ RemarkableHome said...

I love it all! very creative stuff! we love Harry Potter too!. Can't wait for the last movie to come out!

Camille said...

This is AWESOME! My family would have LOVED to been at this party! Thank you so much for sharing! I am your newest follower and I would love to have you come over and link this up to our Link Party going on this weekend- and every link counts as an entry in our giveaway!
http://sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com/2011/07/strut-your-stuff-saturday-week-1.html
Camille @
SixSistersStuff.blogspot.com

Sharon-The OKI StampQueen said...

What great ideas! I wish I had some kiddos I could use these for! Thanks for sharing! Blessings, Sharon

Honey I'm Home Blog said...

Thanks for sharing this awesomeness with my readers at Fab Friday. I love this so-o-o much!

Warmly, Michelle

Janie said...

That is so awesome!

ford369 said...

This is where you get the butter beer labels.
http://www.costumes.org/tara/photoalbum/potter/butterbeerlabels.jpg

Honey I'm Home Blog said...

I'm pleased to feature this on my Fab Friday Favorites post tonight!

Warmly, Michelle

Hi, I'm Aleisha! said...

You are amazing! I mean it! Amazing, amazing, amazing! Best party ideas ever! I would have LOVED to have been in attendance. I'm a new follower...found you via a blog hop hosted by my sis-in-law's blog, "Six Sisters' Stuff." SO GLAD I did find you. I admire your talent and your blog is neat. Best wishes! http://callmemamaleisha.blogspot.com

Chef in Training said...

how fun is this! Great ideas! I found your blog through a link party and LOVE it! I am your newest follower and would love it if you would check out my blog and follow me too! Thanks!
-Nikki
http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

You did a great job! I pinned this, and will be putting a lot of your ideas to use in my own Harry Potter party. Thanks for sharing. :)

sandeep said...

Jengerbread can you friendship with me i impressed by your profile



and i love it all

Download Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 Movie

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Zobell Fam said...

I found the link for your labels:
www.theoldmoviemaven.com/.../2makeyourownbutterbeer.doc
Thanks for your great ideas, my son is supper excited for his "Harry Potter Party".

Just Jaime said...

I looooooooooove all the details. Love the house crests hanging from the ceiling, the platform 9 3/4, the food! Amazing job!

Unknown said...

How Did you get the little decorative underline below the hogwarts seal and name?

Unknown said...

Thank you for this valuable information, I hope it is okay that I bookmarked your website for further references.
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Unknown said...

I was wondering how did you insert the design on the acceptance letter in the heading. Under the line of witchcraft and wizardry.

Unknown said...

I was wondering how did you insert the design on the acceptance letter in the heading. Under the line of witchcraft and wizardry.

Unknown said...

I was wondering how did you insert the design on the acceptance letter in the heading. Under the line of witchcraft and wizardry.

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