Diagon Alley - Ollivander's Wand Shop

"The wand chooses the wizard."  -  Mr. Ollivander

Ollivander's at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I really wanted the wand experience to be a fun one for the girls.  I kept trying to think of a way that "the wand could choose the wizard" but I could not come up with anything.  I stumbled upon a blog with a great idea that I decided to use.

I planned to use Bug-A-Boo's light up goblet from Disney World.  I put the wands in the goblet.  If the cup holding all the wands lights up, then the child selected the wand that was meant for them.   Once the wand chooses the wizard present a box for keeping it in.

I began gathering my supplies.  I bought a a couple of bags of wooden dowels from Michael's to make the wands.  I also bought brown poster board to make the boxes.  

Wand boxes at Ollivander's at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

To make the boxes you need the following materials:

- 14x22" posterboard
-  ruler
-  a scorer
-  adhesive
-  tape
-  quilt batting
-  fabric

Step 1

STEP 1:

Cut two 5x15" rectangles from the pasteboard.

Be sure to label one rectangle as the bottom so you can keep track of each piece.

For the bottom, mark out a 1-1/8" border all the way around the rectangle.

For the top mark out a 1" border.

Step 2

STEP 2:  

Score the borders you made on each rectangle.  If you don't have some sort of scoring tool, don't worry!  Just take a dried out ballpoint pen and your ruler and go over the lines 2 or 3 times.  Be careful not to press to hard!

Step 3

STEP 3:

Cut along the line on both ends of the rectangles.

Then fold the box along each score line.

Step 4

 STEP 4:

Using your adhesive glue the tabs to the ends of the box.

Tape the ends on the inside of the box to make sure they stay secure.

Step 5

Step 5

STEP 5:

I wasn't too concerned with this part being perfect because it was inside the box.

Cut a piece of bating about the same size as the bottom box.

Then cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the batting.  I had some scrap fabric already, so that's what I used.  You can use whatever you have.

Next wrap the batting up with the fabric.  You can use tape to keep it together, although you don't need to.

Step 6

STEP 6:

Attach an Ollivander's wand label to the top of the box with your adhesive.

Step 7

STEP 7:

Attach a wand number label to the end of the box with your adhesive

Next I needed to make 12 individual wands.  I used hot glue to make designs on each of the wooden dowels and then painted each one a different color.  I attached a wand description card to each wand with twine and placed them in the light up cup.

Next I created a booklet that each girl would get with their wand, Your Wand & You.  I used text from the Alivan's website.  I used the information and created the booklet in Mac Pages/Microsoft Word.

Your Wand & You booklet

I printed the Ollivander's sign from Prop Printables and mounted it to foam core.  I put the cup with the wands, the boxes and the booklets on a table and each girl began her wand journey.

I held the cup in my hand and each girl would choose a wand.  I would let me pick once or twice and when the "wand" chose them I would flip the switch on the bottom of the cup and it would light up.

After getting their wand I would read the card and let them know how long their wand was, the type of wood it was made of and what was in the wand core.  I then put the wand in a box and they put their boxes in their cauldron.

This was a big hit with the girls and it was so much fun!

If you would like to purchase the 3 pdf files (wand number labels, Ollivander's label and wand description cards) for $6.00, you can PayPal me at kellyldriver@yahoo.com 

Next stop...Flourish & Blotts Bookstore!