Unofficial Guide To Crafting The World Of Harry Potter

by Jamie Harrington

[inlibrisveritas]

After enjoying the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, I was excited to see that my library also purchased this one! It’s full of cool little ideas for crafting, some hits and some misses…and others that I plan to tinker and change. Thankfully a lot of these are change friendly and the book even encourages those who want to expand on the ideas.

Crafts I Love:

House Color Tie-Dye Shirts
Golden Snitch Necklace
Spellbook Journals
Pencil Wands – I’ve actually made wands out of chopsticks, which is basically the same thing as this! It’s a ton of fun, I really recommend it!
Monster Book of Monsters Tablet Cover
House Color Sugar Scrubs
Marauder’s Map Mug – Not dishwasher safe though…
Lumos/Nox Light Switch Cover – I’ve made one of these!
Crafts I Plan to Change:

Lightning Scar Earrings – These rely on Shrinky Dinks, but instead of using lightning bolts I’d probably do something a bit more obviously Harry Potter like Dark Marks. Or maybe even Luna’s Radish earrings. Maybe even a few keychains!
Rememberall Ring – This is a bit bulky to be a ring, so I’d probably make it into a necklace or a bracelet charm.
Mandrake Root Pencil Holder – The little blurb at the end of this mentioned making a planter instead, and that is just perfect!
Dementor Soap – I can’t get behind putting fabric in my soap…what happens when I get to the middle of the soap in a shower, now I just have a dementor shaped piece of fabric. BUT I do think it’d be a cool idea for gifts for Potterhead kids if you put something else in there like little snakes, badgers, eagles or lions.
Chocolate Frog Coasters – I would add are more card like look to it and cover it with Mod-Podge to seal it in.
The Misses:

Sorcerer’s Stone Paperweight – I just don’t like how this one looks, at all. I can’t figure out a way to make it better either.
Pensive Dish – This was just sort of too vague of a craft to be ‘Harry Potter’ but it’s a cute idea for personalizing your desk or jewelry area.
Honeydukes Cookie Jar – This was sort of a simple idea that kind of seemed obvious.
Free Dobby Clothes Hamper – This is sort of ‘meh’ overall, and I think a Free Dobby (spare sock) board with some clothes pins to hold random spare socks would be cuter.
Nargles for the Yard
Overall I do really like this book and think it has some great ideas! I think there is a lot to work with in here and for all crafting levels, making it great for adults and kids as well! I didn’t list all the crafts above, just the ones that stood out to me in some way and there were a few that were pretty great but I didn’t want to overload the review with them. If you are a crafty Potterhead I really urge you to find a copy and check it out!