Monday, November 5, 2012

Harry Potter Birthday Party


Instead of just showing a cake today, I thought I would share some photos from my older daughter's Harry Potter themed birthday party. In the past 2 years she's become quite a fan and really wanted a Harry Potter birthday. She's read all the books (we read the last one together) and seen all the movies, so we had a lot to work from in terms of ideas. I got a little too into it also and found myself using my free time making decorations and invitations for the party. It's not just that I printed the invitations - I HAD to find the real HP font. On a last minute whim, I thought about adding the feather. Now if only I had a reliable source for trained owls to deliver the invitations...


 Our front door for the day! Hooray for rolls of masking paper from the hardware store. And for my husband for spending the afternoon coloring in the brick pattern for Platform 9 3/4.


We turned the dining room into the Great Hall. I'm glad I started on these banner a few weeks in advance! The banners are made from Canson papers, while the logos are printed and cut out. My daughter's friend had a Hogwarts banner, so thankfully I didn't have to recreate it.


Witches, wizards and 7 years olds love candy! I turned the entry console into Honeydukes. I made up the labels for the frogs and jars in Adobe Illustrator. I did go a little overboard on the sweets - jelly beans, homemade chocolate frogs, cake, broomstick cookies in addition to having the kids decorate cookies and dip pretzel rods in chocolate to make wands. Did I mention the gummy spiders and brains at the potions lab?


I felt a little nutty collecting jars over the past 6 months, but it was worth it when it came time to make the potions lab. I found the labels online here. Most of the jars are filled with colored water while the "Wartcap Powder" is just old hot chocolate powder from last year.

This is a blog about cakes, after all, and I wouldn't want you to feel cheated. Here you go!