Harry Potter Party Digital Files (all in one place)

 It's been a long time since I've done a post here, but I recently had someone contact me about some of the Harry Potter birthday party items asking for a comprehensive list of all of my files for sale.  I thought that was a pretty good idea so here it is.  I have linked each item to it's individual post so that you can see what it looks like.

1.  Invitation letter, train ticket, supply list and Hogsmeade permission slip:  $6.00

2.  Gringott's Withdrawal Slip:  $2.00

3.  Ollivander's Label, wand number labels and wand description cards:  $6.00. NOTE:  I DO NOT have the file for the "Your Wand and You" booklet.

4. Standard Lesson Book:  $4.00. I realized I didn't have to many photos of the inside of the Lesson Book so here are a few to give an idea of what is inside.

5.  House attribute cards and House crest buttons:  $4.00

6.  Slug and Juggers potion label:  $2.00

7.  OWL Results and Certificate of Merit:  $4.00

8.  Chocolate Frog Wizard Cards:  $8.00

All files are PDFs and can be purchased either through PayPal at kellyldriver@yahoo.com or Venmo at @kellyldriver.

Once I receive notification of payment I will send the files.  

Stranger Things Birthday Party

As Bug-A-Boo's 13th birthday draws near, I am reflecting on the party she had last year and I know that it is the last "themed" birthday party I will ever do for her.  It makes me sad but as she gets older I need to remember that it is the way of things.

For her 12th birthday she wanted to have a Stranger Things party.  The third season of the Netflix, hit show, was all Bug-A-Boo and her friends talked about.  They were obsessed.

The planning for a party (for me at least) always begins with the food.  

The girls were going to be here around dinner time and I wanted to do a themed dinner and thought Burger King would be perfect since that is what Hopper gets for him Joyce, Murray and Alexi.  And we had to have Cherry Slurpee, in honor of Alexi.  Since there aren't any 7-Eleven's around I found a recipe for cherry slurpee on the internet.  They were a big hit.

Bug-A-Boo didn't want a cake...she wanted a Waffle Bar.  The main character of Stranger Things is Eleven and she loves Waffles.  Eggo's play a big part in the show.

I thought that was a great idea.  I searched the internet for Waffle Bar topping ideas and came across a great idea on Pinterest.  In order to give the girls ideas of how to top their waffles we came up with 8 different character waffles.  Some of these I borrowed from Pinterest and some we came up with ourselves.  I then made signs that we could display.  They included pictures of POP! Figures, which Bug-A-Boo collects.

-THE JOYCE

A little nuts!  Top with Peanut Butter, bananas and mini M&Ms.

-THE NANCY

Goodie Goodie with a rebellious side!  Top with Strawberries, bananas and chocolate chips.

-THE HOPPER

A little blue and a little rough but with a soft side!  Top with blueberries, chopped nuts and whipped cream

-THE DUSTIN

Bring on the sweets!  Top with chocolate pudding, whipped cream and sprinkles.

-THE ELEVEN

Simple but brilliant!  Top with chocolate chips and syrup.

-THE MAX

A fiery redhead with a sweet side! Top with strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate pudding and sprinkles 

-THE BILLY

A dark and brooding bad boy!  Top with chocolate pudding, chocolate chips and chocolate syrup

-THE STEVE

Scoops Ahoy Employee (best mom ever) of the Month!  Top with blueberries, strawberries and mini marshmallows! 

So our list of toppings is as follows:

-chopped peanuts

-peanut butter

-bananas

-strawberries

-chocolate chips

-mini marshmallows

-blueberries

-syrup

-sprinkles

-whipped cream

-snack pack chocolate pudding

Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream Shop also is a main location for the action in season three, so we knew we had to have an ice cream bar.  Since season three had just premiered a month earlier there were still places doing promotions with the show.  One of those was Baskin Robbins.  They had teamed up with Target to sell pints of Stranger Things themed ice cream.  I scoured the Target website for the ice cream and finally found one that had a few of the flavors.  It was an hour away, but I really wanted to get the ice cream for her.

I also made special Scoops Ahoy bowls for them.

Next up were the decorations.  I created a few little posters to hang up around the kitchen.  The Missing poster of Will and Barb that were used in the show and Will's drawing of Bob.

I also made some character paper dolls using my Circuit to be used as a centerpiece.  This is probably my favorite thing for the party.

Lucas

Eleven 

Dustin

Will in the Upside Down

Mike

Max

Last but not least were the favor bags.  I wanted to make sure I had some things from the 80s.  I got mini Rubix Cubes and iconic 80s candy - Pop Rocks, Airheads, Nerds and Stranger Things Pez dispensers.  I also found the coolest iPad stickers.  It was the sheet music to The Never Ending Story song with a drawing of Dustin and Suzie.  

Overall, it was a great birthday party and they all had a lot of fun.

While they ate their waffles and ice cream they watched Season 1 Episode 1 of Stranger Things and played Bug-A-Boo's new game.

Abridged Harry Potter party with family

For Bug-A-Boo's family party we had an abridged version of the Harry Potter Party.  We decorated the pub to look like The Three Broomsticks and the dining room to look like the Great Hall.  We had Butter Beer, and a cake and for the Gluten Free people I made Chocolate Frogs and Fizzing Whizbees.

The Three Broomsticks

enjoying a Butter Beer

Owl Post

Honeydukes

The Great Hall and the cake

For the cake at the family party I wanted to do something a little bit more decorative.  I wanted to focus more on the books for this party so I made the cake to look like a book.

I bought a cake mix and baked it in a 9 x 13 pan.  I cut a slit down the middle to look like the center  of a book.  I gave the cake a crumb coat of frosting and refrigerated it for an hour.

For the book mark and the scarf I needed to use fondant.  I bought pre-colored fondant paste at Michaels and made a Gryffindor scarf and a book mark for the cake.

The other decorations for the cake were super easy.   I just used Bug-A-Boo's toy Harry Potter glasses, Golden Snitch and her wand that she got from Universal Studios Orlando.

Using black icing I wrote the message on the cake.  It was her 7th birthday, hence chapter 7.

The final bit...Thank You Notes

One of the things that I wasn't able to fit in to the party was the Maurader's Map.  While researching possible ways to use it I found a website that had a version of the map that when folded was the size of an invitation or thank you note.  AHA!!!!  Thank you notes.  I downloaded the artwork and the instructions on how to fold them and decided that these mini Maurader's Maps would be the Thank You note for the party.

Once the maps were folded the back of it was blank and the perfect spot for Bug-A-Boo to write her thanks.  The maps were pretty tedious to fold and took a while but it was worth it.  They came out awesome.

We put them in small envelopes and along the flap of the envelope we wrote, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good".  On the back of the map above where the thanks went we wrote in big letters, "Mischief Managed".  I went to the post office and was lucky enough to be able to buy 2 books of Harry Potter stamps.  It was perfect.

I have included the link to the website with the map artwork and instructions and I've also included them below.

From the Britta.com website:

"Here are the instructions for cutting & folding my original artwork Marauders' Map I created for my Year 6 at Hogwarts party in 2005. Although I still claim copyright on my original artwork, my map is freely available for fellow Harry Potter fans as long as it is for non-commercial
use only. By downloading my map, you agree to my terms of use. Sale or distribution of
this material is prohibited without my express authorization. Please contact me to discuss resale or distribution terms if you are interested."
Thank you,
Britta Peterson
britta@britta.com www.britta.com

The folding is complex enough that you really need to pay careful attention to your creases or the drawing doesn't meet up properly for the design. If you have origami experience like me, that helps immensely, since you'll already know that quality origami is all about accuracy and precision. Even after folding 80 maps, I couldn't ever get quicker than about 5 minutes per map, cutting & folding included, so be more concerned about the quality of your final product than rushing to get them finished.

1. Print out your map on a sheet of 8.5x11" parchment paper.

2. Find the faint lines near the edge of the patio and the Honeydukes coffeetable to make gentle mountain folds (fold backwards) in approximately thirds lengthwise. Do NOT crease these folds!

3. Find the faint lengthwise lines that mark the outline of the front cover image and cut only to where you just folded. You will notice that on this cut line, the design doesn't match anywhere until after it's folded into the final pattern.
4. Find the faint lines that mark the inner edges of where the front covers meet in the middle. You will see that the design changes at the same line. Make mountain folds on those lines.
5. Bring the last two mountain folds together to meet in the middle. Carefully adjust the middle until the design meets, then press down to finger-crease the outer edge folds. Don't worry about a crisp crease yet, since you still might have a final adjustment at the end.

6. Turn over and you'll see your top flap edges hang over the folds from the back view.
7. Trim the front cover flaps either now, or you can wait until after the final folding.
8. Turn back over so you see the drawing again. Unfold the front cover you just folded so it is out of the way. Use the cross-marks where the inner ends of the cuts are to fold the top and bottom strips across in valley folds as shown. Your original gentle mountain folds should meet up with the side folds of the front cover. Adjust a little if necessary, since sometimes the cuts can end in slightly different places.

9. Find the faint lines and design edges for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry lettering on the edges of the horizontal flaps. Mountain fold all four ends as shown.

10. This step is a bit tricky. Take the pair of end flaps from one side that match together, i.e. "Hogwarts School." Pull the flaps around so that the folded edges meet and the lettering matches up, then gently smash down so you end up with the angled folds, taking care that you don't stress the corners so much that they rip. This will require some adjusting of the angles and the edge where the front cover will fold over this section. Your priority is that the lettering matches up with the front cover still able to fold over everything, since you can trim the other edges for a clean look. Repeat this with the other side lettering so all your lettering meets in the middle now.

11. Due to the paper printable area, you have overlap at the middle, so make a cut through all the flaps as shown to trim the overlap, but be careful you do NOT cut through too many layers. You do want to cut through the angled folds, but you want to be careful not to go through the other side, so it's easiest to cut from the outside in for each side. Depending on your cuts (and how much you care!), you might want to open the map back up and trim all the way across to have a clean final exterior edge when unfolded. Yes, I painstakingly trimmed all my maps because I'm that picky. ;) It helps the map stay flat to use a folding bone on the school lettering layer before folding the whole map.

12. Carefully fold everything together, making sure that you haven't caught anything misfolded inside. Holding the front cover together to be sure the design meets properly, then use a folding bone to make crisp folds and to help keep the map flat.
Voila! Your own Marauders' Map!

Original artwork and instructions by Britta Blvd © 2005-2006 All Rights Reserved. 

This whole Harry Potter Birthday Party didn't end with the party.  I worked for almost as long on creating Bug-A-Boo's birthday gift which was a trunk full of Harry Potter themed stuff.  Stay tuned for all the details of her gift.