Expecto Patronum and Dementor Stones: A Harry Potter Party Favor

 EXPECTO PATRONUM!!

Almost two months ago, I showed you a craft I made, with plastic animals and silver craft paint. I called them patronuses and had plans of making them a favor/activity for my son's Harry Potter birthday party, but I was stumped as to how I was going to present them.

It took me a while but I did finally figure out how to do it. I created a modified surprise ball from a tutorial I found here. These are more stone shapes than balls, but I thought that was appropriate because they're kind of dementors. The black shapes of darkness, fear and sadness.

I filled the bowl (found at a thrift store in a lucky coincidence... always keep your eyes and mind open when on the look out for creative project ideas) with my dementor stones.

And then I drew out a sign for the spell the kids needed to defeat the dementors. I had a whole sheet of blank labels that I made, using a tea stained paper, so any time I needed a label or sign, I just wrote out another. I used many of the labels for my potion bottles, and others for candy labels. I taped the label to a skewer that I cut in half, and the tapes the end of the skewer to the patronus bowl.

The party was planned out with different levels of activities. After they'd run around a bit I set them down with the Expecto Patronum/Dementor Stones, and asked them what they knew about dementors. Enough of the party goers were Harry Potter fans that they explained the story to the others.

Then I told them about the Expecto Patronum spell, and when they said the spell, they had to think very hard about good and happy things. so that while they were opening up the dementor stones, they could bring their patronus into being.

They unwound their dementor stones and ended up with their silvery patronus charm.

Each kid found one of these inside of their dementor stone and I told them that their patronus spirit would help chase away bad thoughts and feelings.

"Like bad dreams?" one of the kids asked.

"Exactly," I said.

These were the stones that were left, and the dementor shrouds that dried up and blew away.

Dementor Stone Tutorial

This is how I made the dementor stones. I bought black crepe paper streamers and then I picked a relatively large patronus figure.

I started with one end on the figure and, holding it tightly and stretching the crepe paper out slightly as I did it, started wrapping up my figure. I tried to wrap it evenly, sort of like wrapping a ball of yarn. The tighter you pull it, the more the paper will conform to the shape of your figurine.

You want to wrap it in opposite directions, pulling snugly so that the crepe paper almost stretches around it.

When the stone is wrapped completely and the shape of the patronus is concealed in the streamer, cut the streamer and glue or tape the end to the outside. It does not have to be round like a surprise ball. This is only one gift and I do like the stone shapes. I was thinking that it would be a cool surprise, though, to add glittery confetti inside of the stones, so as they unwrap, the wizard or witch would be releasing magic. But I thought of that after my shopping trip was already done.

If the patronus figure is smaller, like this little turtle, you actually need a thinner streamer. So I pulled off a good deal of the streamer, folded it several times so that it was layered, and then cut it in half lengthwise, so when unfolded I ended with two long narrow streamers.

At this point, you wrap up the figure the same way you wrapped up the bigger one, snugly and firmly, wrapping in different directions as you go to cover the whole figure. If the streamer snaps, it's no big deal. Just hold onto the end that has already been wrapped, and keep wrapping it with the rest of the streamer. You can add more glue if you want, but it's not necessary. You don't want it to be too hard to unwrap.

Finish wrapping and glue. Let the glue dry. I like how the black crepe paper, pulled tight, is almost shiny and seemingly solid.

Present to your favorite Harry Potter fan, and watch the magic happen.