Recently, one of our favorite kindergarten friends turned 6 and had a Harry Potter-themed birthday party. They decorated the house, whipped up magical foods, dressed in wizards' robes, and even gave out golden snitches as party gifts. What better for an enchanting party than the birthday boy's own book of spells and wand?
I aged the book by lightly painting gold luster dust (made liquid by mixing it with a few drops of vodka) along the sides to make the pages gilt-edged. I also used a fine-toothed metal cake comb to better define the pages.
The book needed an extra detail - the logo on the side seemed like the perfect addition. Had I thought about it in advance, I wouldn't have had to bend at funny angles to try to apply it sideways. Oh well, you live and learn.
I used the same method for these letters as for the title, but I painted over the black ink with liquid gold coloring. I love the look of the black and gold together.
I wasn't really sure how I was going to make the wand. I started by combining two shades of brown because I didn't have quite enough - and halfway through rolling it, I realized the marbling looked a lot like real wood. I quickly stopped kneading and starting shaping the wand. Not too perfect, in keeping with the HP wands, and I made it 10" - just about the right size for a beginning wizard.
For one more Harry Potter touch, a Hedwig-like owl kept watch over the book.
Happy birthday to our young wizard friend!
I aged the book by lightly painting gold luster dust (made liquid by mixing it with a few drops of vodka) along the sides to make the pages gilt-edged. I also used a fine-toothed metal cake comb to better define the pages.
I approximated the HP font for the lettering on the book. It is very hard to cut out fondant with very small detail, without tearing through it. I rolled it out reasonably thin - about 1/8" - keeping it just thick enough to hold its shape. Then I let it sit out for a few minutes to dry a tiny bit. Fresh fondant is stretchy and hard to cut accurately. The thin blade and fine-point tip of an x-acto knife was the easiest way to keep the detail of the letters. After cutting them, I let the letters dry for a few days, and they colored them black with a food-safe marker.
The book needed an extra detail - the logo on the side seemed like the perfect addition. Had I thought about it in advance, I wouldn't have had to bend at funny angles to try to apply it sideways. Oh well, you live and learn.
I used the same method for these letters as for the title, but I painted over the black ink with liquid gold coloring. I love the look of the black and gold together.
I wasn't really sure how I was going to make the wand. I started by combining two shades of brown because I didn't have quite enough - and halfway through rolling it, I realized the marbling looked a lot like real wood. I quickly stopped kneading and starting shaping the wand. Not too perfect, in keeping with the HP wands, and I made it 10" - just about the right size for a beginning wizard.
For one more Harry Potter touch, a Hedwig-like owl kept watch over the book.
Happy birthday to our young wizard friend!
Comments
I really love it and i'm sure the birthday-kid did aswell :)