My brother and his cute new wife just got back from a honeymoon to Florida. Where they visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Universal Studios in Orlando.
They stopped by and showed us photos of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, where they bought their robes and wands.
Naturally, after they told us of their stop to Ollivanders and the amazing wands they bought, my boys wanted wands too.
They thought my brother should have bought them some.
I tried to tell my boys that “the wand chooses the wizard” so there was no way that their uncle could have chosen a wand for them, but they still didn’t understand.
My oldest son told my brother to go home and use his Elder Wand to do a spell to send him and his brother their own wands. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that no use of the word “accio” would ever be able to summon up wands.
The next day a small box was delivered to our doorstop while we were gone running errands. My boys ran to the porch to see what it was, but were sorely disappointed when the box contained my new year’s supply of contact lenses – not their new wands.
At that point they began to realize that they might not magically get their hands on some wands.
That’s when the constant begging began for me to help them make some wands. My sister-in-law found an easy way to make authentic-looking wands on Pinterest and my boys wouldn’t let me forget it.
Finally when I could take it no longer, I found the Pinterest pin and we gathered up some supplies to make our own magic.
First off we headed to the local oriental market for a package of chopsticks. We bought a 20-pack for $3.99.
Then we came home and gathered up brushes, some acrylic paint, hot glue sticks, a glue gun and a bunch of different sized beads.
The boys took turns looking through and choosing their own beads and we worked carefully to glue them on to the bottom end of the chopsticks. The instructions I saw online said to cover the beads in glue then, after the glue was cool, to mold the wands’ handles with your hands.
That didn’t go so well for me. I ended up nearly melting my palm to a few of the wands trying to mold the ends before I decided it wasn’t worth it. Instead I ran the end of the wands under some cold water until the glue was almost all set. Then I squeezed the end with my hand to make sure the beads would stay.
The beads and glue made the handles of the wands look real. We even added a feather into a couple of the wands so that they had a “core.”
Once we had the wands molded to our liking, we needed to finish them off with paint.
The painting part was probably the fastest, but most stressful part. I don’t know why I ever think I am a patient enough mom to paint with my children. Even though I make them wear some of my really old t-shirts I am still a nervous wreck that they are going to end up with paint everywhere.
But we survived and I am really happy with how the wands turned out.
They were really easy and my boys have been playing with them ever since. You can check out the website we looked at for instructions here.
My boys wanted to be done after we made only two wands. But after I had strewn crafting supplies all over my kitchen, I wasn’t going to stop with only a couple of wands. I made them help me finish ten. That way when we lose some (which I know we will) or when friends come over, we will have extras.
They are definitely not as fancy or as authentic as the ones my brother picked up in Florida, and I am sure they aren’t nearly as nicely made, but don’t tell my 4 and 6 year olds, to them they are still pretty magical.
Boogers on the Wall 
