Hosting your own Harry Potter birthday party? Don’t forget to make your own Easy Harry Potter Wands DIY for Under $2 each, the perfect party favor! May contain commissioned links.
EASY Harry Potter Wands DIY for Under $2
My son wanted a Harry Potter birthday party for his 9th birthday. I know, I couldn’t be more proud. But creating a birthday party based on one of the most epic book and movie series EV-AH…not an easy feat, especially when you’re a crafty Type-A perfectionist with about 1 million amazing ideas. But travel and a crunched time frame forced me to focus on the absolute Harry Potter birthday party must haves.
Case in point – wands. You cannot have a party without the wands.
But have you been to Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter lately? I keep seeing the prices climb – last time I checked over $45 per interactive wand. Did you have a slight heart attack? Yeah, me too.
Not being able to afford such an amazing party favor for our guests, I did the next best thing, make my own Harry Potter wands. These Easy Harry Potter Wands DIY for under $2 a pop will have your guests thinking you really brought the magic to the birthday party.
And hey, with a slight Asian flair too…
Easy Harry Potter Wands DIY
It all begins and ends with good chopsticks. Yes, chopsticks. Did you know that Asians use long cooking chopsticks for their big ole pot steaming, stewing and soup-ing? But if you take a closer look these extra long cooking utensils actually have a more magical purpose in life. But it’s all in picking the right ones.
What You Will Need:
- Long Cooking Chopsticks – about 15 inches long with round body and pointed ends. I suggest ones that are NOT pre-painted/glossed.
- Hot Glue – a ton of it
- Paint – browns, golds, blacks
- Modge Podge Gloss Finish
Directions:
- The handle of a Harry Potter wand makes or breaks this tutorial. So I suggest using Google as your friend to pull up a few pictures of wands as your go-to. Some are easier to recreate than others – Harry’s is pretty easy, as well as Draco, Ron and Bellatrix. But more complicated designs like Dumbledore and Hermione will need a bit of practice. Choose an easy design to start with and work up to to the harder ones, or get creative and create your own designs.
- Add hot glue in the design of your wand to the handle portion of your chopstick. Allow to dry in between coats, especially with the thicker areas. You’ll definitely need some patience as you work with the glue. You may need to use your fingers to shape the glue a bit as it gets cooler.
- When fully dry, paint the wands your desired color. I loved accenting the wands with a touch of gold paint to give them an older/distressed look. Plus the girls went nuts for the glittery ones. Allow to dry.
- For the finishing look, give your wand a good coat of modge podge gloss finish. It gives it that perfect shine (no sticky paint) and feels more like the real thing.
In case you have Elder wand goals this took about 3 hot glue sticks to recreate. Totally worth the effort though, right? (I giggle that I wasn’t able to get a picture on party day. That was a popular wand!)
My biggest tip for making these wands is to make sure you have a few extra chopsticks handy. It’s definitely a learning process for this Easy Harry Potter Wands DIY. Allow yourself some creativity lenience. Also making sure you have your next glue stick on-hand definitely helps to move the process along quicker.
I was super happy with the way these wands came out, and honestly the kids (and adults) all thought they were real! BOOM. The best Harry Potter birthday party favor ever, my kids still love spell dueling with their wands to this day. These Easy Harry Potter Wands were such a hit – definitely a keepsake for every Harry Potter fan.
Stay tuned as I share more from our Harry Potter birthday party here soon. The DIYs and party ideas made this one of my favorite birthday parties to date! But in the meantime, take a look at some of my favorite DIY birthday parties:
- Frozen Fever Party Ideas
- Toddler Tea Party Ideas
- Disney Up Party Ideas
- The Secret Life of Pets Party Ideas
- Finding Dory Party Ideas
What do you think of this Easy Harry Potter Wands DIY for Under $2? Would your kids love them too?
Be sure to follow Raising Whasians for DIY party ideas, kids crafts, recipes & more!
Kathryn Lancour says
What did you use to make the handles exactly?
christie says
The handles are literally the hot glue formed on top of the chopsticks. I linked the hot glue I used in the post.
Ryanne says
What kind of paint did you use exactly?
christie says
Just an acrylic gold paint. The main thing is to allow to dry and then do a layer or two of Mod Podge over top to seal it.
C. Sullivan says
Hi Christie!
How long does it take for the paint to dry? I want to offer this activity at a 1 1/2 hr event with the wands the hot glue pre-made in advance for participants.
christie says
Depends on the brand of paint you use. You could try to hair dryer them to make the process faster. But you’ll want to mod podge it after that.
Emma says
I am using this website to make wands for my child’s goodie bags of or her birthday! Thank you guys so much!
Tony narvaiz says
Hey I’m 9 can you tell me where u got the chop sticks
christie says
Yes! If you click the link it will take you directly to where I bought them 🙂
Toni says
This is so cool. Thank you for posting. I read reviews on the plastic wands and paint chipping off and the nicer plastic ones were more expensive. So I made one using your article and it turned out amazing. It looks old, authentic and so cool. My son is so happy with it for his Halloween costume. I wish I could post a picture.
christie says
I’d love to see it if you want to email it to me!