Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat

Whew. Am I exhausted. Was up late last night starting the sorting hat, and up early finishing it. Took me all-in-all about 3-4 hours, start to finish. What started out as a cabinet box, and an old sheet turned into a grumpy-looking old hat.

I started out by measuring my head with a sewing measuring tape, 22 inches. I got a pretty big head. I then measured that onto a box, and using a straight edge and my protractor (OMG! I used it out of high school! Who knew?!) I crafted a nice looking triangle. I cut it out using an Exacto knife. Next I scored the cardboard a little in straight lines to get it to bend better, and duct taped it together to form a cone. I used the cone base to trace on the cardboard a nice looking brim and cut that as well. 

After the duct taping, I distressed the top of the cone a little to make it bend forward, like the hat has in the movie. Then I duct taped the brim to the cone and started to work on the sheet. After cutting to the appropriate size, I fitted it over the cone and started to safety pin what I think the hat should look like. It was at that point I went to bed.

The next morning I took out my needle and thread again (getting tired of sewing), and sewed together the eyes first, then the mouth, and realized it was wayyyyyy too tall. So I took it all apart, cut it down to size, and duct taped it back together again. I fit the sheet back over the top and secured it with, yes, more duct tape. After sewing for what seemed like hours, I think I got it where I wanted it to be. I cut out a few scraps for the ties and sewed them onto the bottom to dangle down. And Viola! A homemade sorting hat.

The steps weren't too hard, it was just time consuming. Here's pics:

Chocolate Frogs

Up next on the Harry Potter birthday party fun list is chocolate frogs. These went in stages. I didn't want to make the frogs too early and sit around and get stale. So I printed out the boxes and some friends and I cut them out and glued them together with glue dots. My friends did the majority of the work, so kudos goes to them!! I had a lot of help from a very special friend on this entire party, for whom I am very grateful for.

The pattern I used can be found here, which I found originally, on pinterest. (two of my favorite things posted in this entry so far, glue dots, and pinterest!) Chocolate Frog Boxes Pattern

After they were cut out and put together, I moved on to the next task. The cards. Cards were a bit tricky. I looked all over for ideas on where to find them when I happened across a site that listed hundreds of cards with little descriptions of each. Putting my graphic arts skills to work, I pulled each card I wanted, manufactured a back with matching description to the front, sized it perfectly, and print them out. Then aforementioned friend, cut them out, and glued them back to back, making cute, perfectly fitting cards for each box. Here's the site I used to get the cards from originally. Famous Witch & Wizard Cards

With both of those things out of the way, I waited until 2 days prior to the party to make the frogs. I purchased a frog mold from Amazon for a few bucks. This was the exact one I purchased....Chocolate Frog Mold .... except I purchased mine on Amazon.

I used my 25% off entire purchase coupon at Michaels and bought 5 bags of Dark Cocoa Wilton's melting chocolate . Melted them in my Wilton's chocolate melting pot , and used a Wilton's candy funnel to apply perfect amounts of melted chocolate to the mold. Once full, I put it in the freezer for an hour or so. They hopped right out of the mold and into the baggies... ok, so they needed a little guidance into the baggies. They were perfect size for the boxes. Any bigger and they would not have fit!

There is yet another surprise to the chocolate frogs... but that won't be revealed until AFTER the party.

I hope my guests enjoy them! They were fun to make.

My Son, The Gentleman

Have I told you how much I love Pinterest? No? Well, I love it! I get tons and tons and tons of ideas from there. Enough to fill me with 10 lifetimes of crafts, games, toys, gifts, recipes, and homeschooling ideas.

I saw this particular printable there, and I just had to have it. I changed the wording around slightly so it sounds more grammatically correct.  Not that I'm the BEST when it comes to grammar, or heck, even spelling. Being that I am a Medical Transcriptionist however, I should make my best attempt at most given situations.

Anywho, I saw this printable on Pinterest and I just HAD to print it for my son. I had a few leftover frames from when Michael's had their big frame sale, so I just slapped it in there, and hung it in his room.

It has been really fun the past couple of days, watching him strive to be a gentleman. I told him that it might take a little time to get all the 'rules' down, but if he keeps working at them, he'll be a perfect gentleman by the time he's old enough for it to matter.

So here's a picture of the finished product.

Aaaaaand just in case you are in need of a gentleman-in-training, here is the Word Document that I pasted the picture into, so you can make a copy of your very own!

Word Doc For Gentleman Rules

Enjoy!

Gryphon's 7th Birthday Party Invitations.

Finished Gryphon's 7th birthday party invitations the other day and got them sent out to the kiddos.  I got the wording and some of the ideas from someone on pinterest. I spent about .30 cents (minus postage) on each one. Here's a picture of the final product. I did have an owl on the envelope, but I took it out because it had a kids address on it, and I didn't want to share that with the known world.  Sorry it's a bit fuzzy, my camera is going on the fritz again.

I got yellowed document paper with the border design at the Current factory outlet in Colorado Springs. I love it there. Great place to get stationary, gifts, cards, etc. I also got the envelopes there. I bought a pack of 25 for 2 bucks. I ran the envelopes through my printer, and used the "Magic" font I downloaded from some site when I googled "harry potter fonts".

I typed the letter up, and scanned the signature from the book for Prof. McGonnagal's signature. Here's what the letter says.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Dear Mr./Ms. (Kid's last name)

We are pleased to inform you, that you have been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where we will be having a special birthday celebration for Gryphon Miller. 

Term begins August 18, 2012, promptly at 2 p.m.  Please meet us at the hidden entrance to Diagon Alley located at (Location).  There you will gather your magical items, and board the Hogwarts Express which will take you to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Upon arrival, prepare to be sorted into your houses before enjoying the magnificent feast of sweets prepared just for you.

We await your owl post response by no later than August 13, 2012.  If you are having trouble acquiring an owl, you may respond by Muggle telephone at (phone number)or Muggle email at (email address).

Sincerely,

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.

After I printed out each individualized invitation, I folded them, and got my glue gun, an ice pack, red glue sticks, red ink, and my really cool metal dragon stamp I purchased at the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, CO. a few years back.

Stamping with hot glue is a bit tricky. You don't want your glue to stick to your metal stamp, or it will get embedded into the grooves.  What I did was I set the stamp on the ice pack and let it get really cold. I put the glue down on the paper, and blew on it til it was tacky. Then I put the metal stamp on the ink pad to wet it a little, then pressed it into the hot glue and left it there for about 20 seconds. The stamp rapidly cooled the hot glue, and left a perfect impression every time, and the metal stamp would just pop right off.

I sent out 20 invitations, so we will see how many kids RSVP. I also added a little paper for the parents. I needed all parents to RSVP to this event so I knew how many robes to sew, crafts to make, and how much food to prepare.  In the letter to the parents, I also asked to borrow Halloween or Harry Potter themed decorations if anybody had them.  Also, I invited the parents to stay and mingle in the "great hall" while the kids were busy making crafts downstairs.  We will have snacks and other treats available for them before the kids arrive to be sorted.

As it stands right now, I still have a TON of stuff to do. Crafts to pre-prepare, food to make, decorations to assemble, and a lot to buy! Hopefully in the next two weeks I will have it done and I'm not scrambling at the last minute like I usually do.

Anywho, here's the invites. I will be posting more about the party once I get my ducks in a row.

First Post!

Wow! A shiny new blog! So many things to talk about, none of which is all that interesting to the general populous, I'm sure.

Anywho, it's my first entry, so I suppose I should write a little bit about me.

Hmm, not much to say on that matter. I'm in my mid-30s. My life consists of coffee, kids, games, work, and family time. I live in Colorado, though I'm not sure its where I'm meant to be yet. In the meantime, I make goals, I try to make friends, and life goes on.

Summer right now is killing me. The heat. The kids. Did I mention the heat? Sure it's not Texas heat, but I'm not a fan of the extreme elements. If it could be temperate all year long, with about 20% humidity, I'd be there.

I have been working on my son Gryphon's 7th birthday party.  I would have rather just given him the money and sent him to a theme park, but he wanted a themed birthday party this year. So lately I've been scouring pinterest finding all the best Harry Potter theme parties I could. I got some great ideas as well. The party is 2 weeks away, and I've not done much other than the invitations... and the purchasing... oh the purchasing! Hopefully I can get this pulled out of my rear in the next 2 weeks! I have so many ideas, so many crafts, and so little time!

I will post an entry soon about the invitations once I have the pictures uploaded.

In the meantime, welcome to my blog. I will attempt to make as many entries as I can, time allowing.