Muggle Teacher gifts

This is a picture heavy post, so bear with me!  It's that time of year again and I am trying to brainstorm teacher gifts when low and behold, Mandee at Designs by Miss Mandee posted a free Harry Potter Howler card.  So I was off and running! 

The card was made on my Cricut Explore with just cherry and white cardstock.  You can get two cards from a 12x12 sheet.  I used my finger to curl the tongue (and managed to give myself a nasty paper cut!) and placed it with a piece of double stick tape. 
We don't buy Talenti gelato often, mainly because it is expensive, but the jars are just too good to toss so I have been hoarding them.  How did I get the print off, you ask?  Acetone nail polish remover, cotton balls, elbow grease, and a well ventilated area are all it takes.  Make sure you wash the jars well once you are done cleaning them off. 

I will admit I have no idea where I got the image on the jar.  It was all one color, so I decided to highlight the I Teach Muggles in gold, leaving the rest in black.  Ok, I am going to give you an honest crafter-fail moment here.  Those pros out there make this look so fabulous, but this sucker is a pain to weed, because the finished design is only 2 1/2 inches tall.  I worked out a trick of reverse weeding.  TIP: weed the insides of all the letters and work the outside around the bigger words, then put your transfer tape over your image, burnish well, then remove backing paper.  Now weed the outer part of your image SLOWLY and your letters should stay stuck to the transfer tape.

For the top of the jar, I created the image on Cricut Design Space.  It is 3.25" and fits in the lid with a little room to spare.  I used the Cut and Print feature, then added the Hogwarts wax seal using burgundy hot glue sticks.  Yep, hot glue!  The best way I have found to do this is take some cooking spray and put a generous amount on a folded paper towel.  Tap your seal in the cooking spray, then make a puddle of hot glue on a silicone mat or on the sticker.  Wait a few seconds for the glue to slightly set but still soft.  Push the seal into the glue and wait a few minutes for it to set.  Gently rock the seal and remove.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove from the mat.  I store extras in a baggie.  Thanks for looking!  April

Hogwarts Letter SMASH page

While I was working on the Harry Potter ornaments, I printed mini Hogwarts acceptance letters to go in my envelopes.  Sadly, they were just a bit too big but I am too much of a pack-rat to toss them out.  I had a wrapper from a Chocolate Frog and some other bits so I put together another SMASH page for Harry.  If you want to see the other one, click here.  Thanks for looking!  April

Harry Potter ornaments

I warned you I was behind on my blog posts.  As a teacher, I know there are only so many apple-themed items a person can own and generic stuff is cute, but quickly ends up in the goodwill pile.  I always try to choose gifts for the teachers and para-educators that have special meaning and something they want to keep.  Last year, was sharpie mugs featuring each person's favorite Disney character.  This year, I asked for their favorite children's book or character.  I got several who said Harry Potter.  I did not want everyone to get the same ornament, so I made several different HP themed ones.  Here they are!

The Remembrall was filled with burgundy wired organza ribbon.  I looks wispy but the wire allowed me to bend the ribbon different directions.  Once I sealed the plastic ball with a bit of liquid glass, I cut a strip of gold metallic washi tape in half, then placed it over the seam of the plastic ball.  I printed Neville Longbottom's quote on a tag and tied it to the ball, along with a hanger.

The cauldron was so easy.  I found a pack of party treat cauldrons on clearance after Halloween and stuffed a bit of poly-fill into it to look like foamy steam.  I printed the label from the Hogwarts school supply (standard cauldron, black, size 2) on a tag, then added it to the cauldron.

The golden snitch is a pack of dollar store gold ball ornaments, feathers, and gold glitter hot glue.
Not pictured: a ball with a wood owl holding a tiny owl post letter, a printed Hogwarts envelope, addressed to Harry and sealed with a Hogwarts wax seal and a small pillow box printed with Owl Post, twine and wax seal.  (Tip: I found the wax stamp on Amazon, along with cranberry hot glue sticks.  Spray some cooking spray on a paper towel, press stamp into the cooking spray, squirt hot glue on a silicone mat, let cool for a few seconds, then press stamp into glue, hold until glue sets, then slowly rock the stamp to loosen.  I made two dozen in just a few minutes.)
Thanks for looking!
April

Harry Potter Birthday

gift bag with copic colored characters

Butterbeer with straw and wood owl

With teens, our go to birthday gift is a movie rental kit.  We put in a gift card to our local rental place, popcorn, and their favorite candies.  My son was invited to a Harry Potter themed party and insisted we put together a HP themed movie kit.  There are several pics but not everything in the kit is photographed.  We included a homemade "Liquid Luck" potion, packed in a gemstone shaped box, a decorated bottle of Butterbeer, a paper haystack filled with candy, Hershey's kisses decorated as Dementor Kiss-Aways, boxed candy wrapped in Honeydukes wrappers, an origami Howler (complete with Mrs. Weasley's rant), and several other surprises.  The kids went nuts when it came time to open it and it was the hit of the party.  Every kid told Alex they would definitely look forward to their birthday gifts!

gift card envelope, sealed with wax

origami Howler

Thanks for looking!
April

Harry Potter SMASH

So I was picking through some colored images I had and was inspired to join Pixie Dust Studio for this week's "Double the Fun" challenge.  Instead of a card, I decided to do a spread in my SMASH album.  I have posted a Twilight page and decided Harry needed one of his own as one of my favorite series. 

My spread uses the bottles pages in the black SMASH album with layers of Moxxie HP designer paper.  The strips are the same sheet of paper, just the opposite side.  I ripped or used a square punch to make the edges of the strips.  The strip above the Horcrux fram is shaped into a banner by folding under a small portion on each end.  I printed the Horcrux list on cardstock using Lumos font found at dafont.com.  The frames, Goblet of Fire, Hogwarts logo, and Magical People sign are from Creative Imaginations HP line diecuts packet.  The wand, sorting hat, and title are from Moxxie's HP rub ons.  The potion bottles and Ministry of Magic seal are from Creative Imaginations HP licensed cardstock stickers.  I also added my HP7 ticket stub.  The images are PDS Harry, Ron & Hermoine and are colored with copic.  I used my SMASH date stamp with some Timber Staz-On to add the date at the top.  Thanks for looking!  April

close up Harry

Hermoine & Ron close up

Horcrux close up

Mischief Managed

So, I am still playing catch-up with the kids pages. I have been working on this one off and on for awhile, but couldn't seem to find the embellishments I wanted. Then I came across these adorable characters from Pixie Dust Studios! Aren't they just darling???

The base paper is a dual-sided B&T from my LSS. The Marauder's Map is from Creative Imaginations line of HP papers. Isn't it just awesome? I wanted it to look like he was up to no good, so I used the famous line to make the map work. I was out of craft or suede, so I printed the text (Lumos from dafont.com) on Very Vanilla. Next, I used CTMH Brown Bag ink to sponge the edges. Once that dried, I used the blade of my scissors to distress the edges. I went back and darkened the edges with more ink and finished the pieces with bits of Charcoal chalk ink in just a few spots. I matted the photo and cut title in Chocolate Chip textured cardstock and Very Vanilla cardstock. While the Vanilla was still on the cricut mat, I inked the letters. I used the Xyron sticker maker to adhere the fine letters. Title is cricut's Stamped cartridge cut at 1 3/4."

I used watercolor pencils and sharpie markers on the characters. Harry's glasses are liquid glass. I sparingly used some clear Stardust gel pen on each character. Harry is mounted on dimensionals, as well as the photo. The wanted poster is from the Creative Imaginations set that includes frames, icons, potion bottles, etc. The coin is from Tim Holtz and is tied to the mini paperclip with hemp twine. Thanks for looking! April

Note: I am entering this into PDS challenge "Back in time." I figured this pic is over three years old and a lot of HP stuff looks old or distressed, so I am just interpreting the challenge in a different way. Go check them out!