How to make a magic wand

There was no way I could dress up as Hermione Granger without a magic wand! I found this AMAZING tutorial on www.instructables.com. It was ridiculously easy to make and it looks just awesome. I don't think it is actually possible to make a "bad" wand with this tute! Everybody thought that I bought the wand - I was so proud!

What you need:

+ A4 paper

+ Double-sided tape

+ Super glue

+ Hot glue

+ Scissors

+ Spray paint

+ Paint.

What to do (this is just a quick overview. Please go to the original website for the complete tutorial):

1. Stick double-sided tape diagonally across an A4 piece of paper.

2. Roll the paper and glue the end down.

3. Cut each end off the wand so that it is straight.

4. Fill each end of the wand with hot glue.

5. Decorate the wand using hot glue.

I covered one end completely in hot glue to make a handle.

Putting the detail in the middle of the wand was actually very tricky - i'm obviously not versed well enough in glue-gun!

6. Spray paint the wand. I used black paint and gave it 2 coats. I really liked the wand just like this and was extremely tempted to just leave it as it was.

7. Paint the wand. I used brown and gold paint. I didn't have to distress the paint separately as the brown paint I used was a wipe off paint anyway.

And here is the final product with my scarf, sweater and prefect badge!

I also made a miniature wand for Alfred's costume. It is so small!

For size comparison, here it is beside my wand.

Alfred and his wand.

Alfred the elephant

My Little Visitor, Alfred arrived today! I know that we are going to have a great winter together. Hopefully we'll get to do plenty of exciting things that he wouldn't have the opportunity to do in Florida!

Day 28 - summertime

It's very difficult to think about summertime when I am currently experiencing a very cold winter! However, I am going to be living vicariously through my little visitor, Gus T. Turkey, while we spends the next three months on vacation in Florida!

Little Visitor Challenge themes

I am hosting the Little Visitor swap over on Craftster and since it is such a long swap, each round running for three months we almost always have at least one flaker :(

We are doing our best to ensure that doesn't happen this round and I have a team of wonderful ladies helping with many different tasks so that we can stay on top of any potential situations. I have also introduced a photo challenge to try and encourage the swappers to take and post photos! At the moment it is just for fun with no winners or prizes. I'll see how well this goes and if seems to be successful I will let the swappers vote for a winning photo each week. The winner can receive a prize in the mail - maybe a postcard?

So with a weekly challenge that lasts for at least 3 MONTHS I need a LOT of challenge themes!

Here's what I have so far:

Week 1 - something blue

Week 2 - water

Week 3 - magical

Week 4 - childhood

Week 5 - something crafty

Week 6 - architectural detail

Week 7 - something beginning with the letter 'C'

I made the cute banners at puresilvabannermaker. They are just so adorable as well as very simple to put together!

Do you have any ideas for some fun themes that we can use?

Pirates? Baking? Stripes and spots? Science fiction?