Why Potter Palooza?

I have been a fan of Harry Potter ever since reading the first book at age 13, however I didn't mature enough to accept the full burden of fan-dom, until the 7th book or so (since by then I was already married, I didn't need to worry about scaring away the opposite sex with my immense nerdiness). As I grew into the adult side of Harry Potter love, I saw a whole new world open up to me. This shift in life allowed me to take things into my own hands and show the world what being a supporter of Harry James Potter really meant. Therefore, Potter Palooza was born. A celebration of the life and times of Harry Potter, in honor of the final movie release (would have been great to do this for the books as those are the truer representation of HP, but as mentioned, I was not prepared at that point in life just yet). So here are the details of the event ten years in the making: Potter Palooza 2011!


THE PREPARATIONS:
In preparation for PP11 I created a Hogwarts acceptance letter and Marauder's Map  of what my Hogwarts would look like (keep in mind this is before I had set anything up so I was crossing my fingers that it all worked out as planned). I sent these around as links, although I would have liked to mail them on parchment with wax seals and everything, or delivery by Owl post but that didn't work out so I ended up with this: 

This was really difficult and took 16 hours or so to make.

This was pretty easy using Word and images I found online

 THE DECORATIONS:
I wanted to have classrooms spread out around my house where people could do different activities (see below) so I needed a lot of decorations to scatter around.

For Potions I got glass potion bottles and corks at all the craft stores in the area, and had around 20. I filled them with colored water, soap, oil, and some slimy eyes and things I found at PartyLand. I also found some small brass pitchers and knick-knacks at the local thrift store (Deseret Industries). Then some Halloweens skulls added to the appeal. Luckily I had a stone wall already equipped with fireplace and antique shelving to suit the Potions Class needs.




Transfiguration was easier because most of the space was taken up by the chalkboard (over my TV see below). Also, since I was doing an Owl craft, I used a few owl knick-knacks and other standard objects that might be transfigured in the books. The wire owl shown here came from Hobby Lobby (my new favorite store) and the other things from JoAnns. On the other side I has a tea pot and some books.

Divination

I really wanted Divination to be flowery, flowing, and organic. I used a square end table, and overstuffed arm chair, and the corner piece of my sectional for the furniture in this section. I tpoped the table with an ivory lace cloth, crystal ball, tea pot and cup with saucer, an incense burner, and Tarot cards (found at Barnes & Noble). I also hung a curtain behind each chair to kind of close of the area. I also had two floor lamps pulled from another room to kind of book end the rounded sectional piece. It turned out really good.

Runes Course Books

Ancient Runes was pretty easy except I had a huge table and not that many decorations. I found some craft and thrift store items, and then I made these 'text books' from a cheaper photo album set from Walmart. I just drew on them with a gold pen and made a set of Ancient Runes Course books. Also, since I was having the guests to an anagram activity here (see below) I knew people would need pens or pencils to use, but Muggle utensils like that would not suffice for PP11 so I made quills by getting roller pen refils (from Office Depot) and quill feathers (Hobby Lobby) and hot gluing them together. The result was rather nice, if I do say so myself.

Herbology was really cute, but I didn't get pictures before the wind forced it down. I just had a bunch of plants, pots, flowery boxes, and curly willow all around. I also put the edible Fruits and Fungi's out there a pudding dirt cups.


In the Great Hall I made as much space as possible and as much seating as I had. All the food was on my regular kitchen table, its good because it's a large square counter height table, already antiqued for the job of acting in a Harry Potter movie. Then I had the Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer on the island. People could meander around and get food and drinks and have a place to sit too. This is where were read the answers for the anagram and Bertie Bott's Bean challenge and also held the Wizard's Duel (see below).

Coming off the Great Hall is a second level deck which I turned into the Quidditch Stands. I just set up a 10x10 canopy and some taller chairs and stools so people could sit out there and look down onto the quidditch pitch. No one really went out there though, so it was kind of a waste. Here you can see the quidditch pitch down below and the quidditch stands on the deck:

THE ACTIVITIES:
All I really had in mind when I started planning Potter Palooza 2011 (PP11) was that I wanted to have classes where people do different activities and get points for a House Cup like competition. This stayed intact through all of the prep, and I ended up with 5 'classes' and a couple other areas of interest:
Tansfiguration
Potions
Divination
Ancient Runes
Herbology
Defense Against the Dark Arts (just the Wizard's Duel)
The Great Hall
Quidditch Pitch (and Stands)
Wee Wizard's World

When people arrived they were sorted by the sorting hat and assigned to a house. I had people put a sorting hat on and draw out a plastic ring with the house crests on them. This worked good and gave the people something to wear to remember their house. I wanted to do buttons but I couldn't find them pre-made and didn't want to have to make them. These rings are just cupcake toppers and were $3 for 12.













Throughout Hogwart's there were signs describing what could be done in every class and how many points you can earn.

Activities that took longer were worth more points, while quick or easy things were less. Full activity details are below.


TRANSFIGURATION:

There were several color combos to choose from

 I was planning on this class being the main time consumer and was therefore worth 25 house points. Witches and wizards could transfigure an owl out of common every day items and have it to take home. I was worried that adults wouldn't really enjoy this as much as kids but it was almost the other way around. (I would say this is appropriate for ages 8+). This is what the finished products looked like: (full details and instructions below)

And of course I had to make a Hedwig

Owl Craft Instructions
To make 20 owls you will need:
2 packages yarn for each body color you want
1 package yarn  for every tummy color
(I had Brown bodies on Beige tummies, Black bodies on White tummies, and Gold Bodies on Beige tummies)
Wooden dowels to use for threaders. 2 per owl.
Cardboard stencils for the pom-pom maker. 2 per person. (I only made 8 and people switched off).
Brown/Tan Twine (for feet, tying off the pom pom, and hanging)
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Feathers
Small black bead which will fit on the twine
Sticks
Card stock for beaks (Golds, Oranges, Browns, and different textures)
Something for eyes. Here I used Big Time Brads with buttons glued on. There were also pre-made glass animal eyes which were popular.

Instructions:  

Instructions directly on the stencil will help.

In preparation before, make a cardboard stencil about the size of your hand and in an oval shape to look more like an owl. Cut a circle (not oval) in the middle about the size of a 50 cent piece. This needs to be big enough to feed your yarn stick through, but not too big that it takes away all the length of the owls 'feathers'. This is what it should look like. I also wrote the instructions right on the cardboard to help. As mentioned you need two per owl making, but you only need to write instructions on one, the other is just the backing. I suggested to to the body first since it makes it easier to thread.

I also had signs on all supplies to make it easier

You'll want to make a yarn stick for the bodies and tummies. Simply get a wooden dowel and wrap yarn tightly around it (needs to be tight or it will slip off while you're threading). Make it just small enough around to fit through the circle on your cardboard stencil. Bodies usually take up almost the whole dowel and are just smaller than the stencils circle, whereas a tummy is about half of that. This will be some trial and error. I made several examples beforehand to know how to do it right.

I also made the feet attached to the sticks beforehand to make it even easier. Get a small stick and wrap some twine around it closer to one side and slide a bead on the twine every other twist. I did three beads (talons) per foot and did the two feet about two fingers apart on the stick.

Once these are prepared, everything else is really easy:
1- Guests choose a tummy and body color and wrap it around the stencil as instructed
2- Lay the stencil flat and cut between the two layers of cardboard all the way around
3- Tie some twine around the middle of the yarn VERY TIGHTLY.
4- Remove the card board, fluff, and accessorize.

Since it was for Transfiguration class, I made the instructions into a chalkboard so everyone could see them at all times. I got 6 feet of black butcher paper and used the matte finish side. I cut it in the shape of my 42'' flat screen, added a bulletin board boarder (found at JoAnns) and viola:

This made it so I didn't have to move my heavy TV. Whew!

Accessories:
These are just guidelines as everyone will want to personalize their owl. You can really do whatever you want from here.

Feathers: whites and owl looking feathers can be found at craft stores in small bags. Use three for wings and two smaller ones where eyebrows would go. (The eyebrows are what really made it took like an owl I think). you can also add a few for tail feathers if you want.
Feet: If you have already made the stick feet combos, just glue the stick and feet to the bottom of the owl. You may want to trim a litter yarn around them so they show.
Eyes: You can use brads, buttons, glass eyes, or a few other things. Just wander the aisles of your craft store for ideas. It's best if they are bigger than a quarter. Then glue them in place to the yarn first and then, with a TINY bit of glue, glue the eyes together in the middle.
Beak: just cut a triangle out of paper and glue under the eyes and to the yarn.


That's it! Now you have your very own postal delivery service.


POTIONS:
After spending a lot of time, effort, and money on the owl crafts, I didn't want to do anything too elaborate for Potions. I found these Pop Rocks Magic Potions experiments at PartyLand and just had people do one for 10 house points. They had to take them outside to do because they got really messy. Also, people had to wash their hand afterwards so plan on having space for that.










ANCIENT RUNES:

I wasn't expecting this one to be as popular as it was, but I'm glad it was a crowd-pleaser which also took up a good chunk of time. For this I just had a list of 40 anagrams for people to 'decipher', like Refocusing Duel becomes Cornelius Fudge, and Alibi Stickily Vino becomes Invisibility Cloak. They were sorted into People, Places, and Things but it was still really hard which is why it was worth up to 40 points (a point for every right answer). I had previously planned to have people turn them in as they finished, I would grade them and award points. The way it worked out though was better, where people just did these all throughout the party, then we read the answers out loud and people graded themselves and turned it in. 




DIVINATION:

This is the one that I enjoyed decorating the most, but the activity was a flop. I made the mistake of relying on other people for this one (seriously, a confirmation of the time tested fact "If you want something done right, do it yourself") and Professor Trelawney was and hour and a half late. I had planned to have Trelawney reading fortunes all throughout for 10 house points to have your fortune divined, but since she wasn't there, Divination was just another seating area. Which was ok, but AARGH! 



HERBOLOGY:
I did not have an activity for this one, just a Herbology table with edible Fruits and Fungi's and dirt cups. See the recipes section for details. I also didn't get pictures before the wind was so bad we had to take things inside. :(




THE GREAT HALL:

I had all the food (minus the Herbology food) up in the Great Hall. The Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean Challenge was also up there. I had ten numbered Bertie Bott's boxes and a card for people to fill out their guesses of what each flavor was.  This was pretty popular, and we also read the answers aloud and had people score themselves then turn their cards in. (The cards had a spot for House as well as Score to make it easy).






QUIDDITCH:

This turned out to be the funnest, but we didn't do it too much because of time. Also, I was doing a Quidditch Tournament so every now and again I would announce a game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, for example, so one person from each house would do it and whoever scored won. I think because I was doing this, people thought they couldn't 'practice' in the meantime, so mainly they just did it during the official match time only.  That was still fine though, because we got a lot of play in. This was popular with adults more than kids it seemed, or I just had more adults.








HORCRUX HUNT:
By the front door, there were cards for a Horcrux Hunt, which was kind of like an "I Spy" where you tried to find the horcruxes all around Hogwart's. I had originally planned this for children 5 and under but as we got closer it seemed there wouldn't be that many kids so I made it a little harder and everyone played. People really liked this one and it was fun, but my 4 year old kept telling all the guests where things were hidden...



THE WIZARDS DUEL:
Of course you can't have Hogwart's without Defense Against the Dark Arts, so I had this course be a practical examination, which was a trivia Wizard's Duel. This was pretty informal as it was the last thing we did but that was just right. Two people got asked one question and whoever got it right first moved on. The winner earned their house 25 points and choose their prize first from the House Cup prize bucket.

 THE SUPPLIES:
One thing is certain, it takes a lot of STUFF to throw a Harry Potter party. Most of the decorations I found at party supply stores and craft stores, with a few things coming from thrift stores.

The sorting hat came from PartyLand and then I painted it some more and added stitching accents to make it more authentic.I had to order the rings online, but they weren't hard to find.

 The Quidditch Brooms were super awesome. I found these Sole Skate things at Target ($30) duct taped a broom tail underneath and hot glued and tied a handle to the front (I found both of those at Micheal's) Simple fast and looked really cool, but they fell apart after 10 rides or so. I had people crashing into mattresses at the bottom, so maybe if I didn't include those, people wouldn't have purposely crashed which broke the broom handles faster.  For the poles I used PVC pipe, T joints, and foam pipe covers (all from Home Depot). I spray painted everything gold and then set the poles in a 5 gallon bucket of cement. I also painted the buckets green and drew green grass on them with puff paint, so they weren't an eye sore. They were sturdy and we didn't have problems.




For the Horcruxes, I just bought a rubber snake, tiara, and old cup (from thrift store) and left those unaltered. For Riddles's diary I got, a fancy leather diary (from Barnes & Noble) and I added a piece of scotch tape on the front with 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' written on it because I didn't want to ruin the book. Then I got a black stone ring ($3 clearance at Target) and I drew an 'S' and 'Slytheryn' on it in gold. I had to buy the locket materials seperately from Micheal's Arts and Crafts since I could find one pre-made that was good enough. So I found a good locket piece, a matching chain, and a clasp. Luckily the locket had an "S" etched on it, because I've never tried my hand at metal working. For the Harry horcrux, I used a picture of one when he was a baby since that is when he was turned into the Horcrux technically. Then I took pictures of everything on a black background, threw them into Word, and made the Horcrux Hunt cards. People really enjoyed it and got 7 house points if they found all. 

For all the food trays I raided the thrift stores for some crappy junk and also bought a few things (from Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and trusty Walmart) I thought I'd reuse. I also got all the glass mugs from all the DI's and Walmart's in the area to serve the butterbeer in.

Pretty much I spent a lot of time at JoAnn's, Micheal's, and Roberts before I found Hobby Lobby which probably has everything in one stop. There I got craft supplies, decorations, and mostly everything else like yarn for the owls and feathers etc.