Our Harry Potter Summer, Book One Craft~Wands

So the craft we did for the first movie was wands. Real wood wands. What is a wizard or witch without a wand? So I thought to myself, hey, my dad is a wood carver, and I bet he could carve some pretty outrageous wands. So I had my oldest kiddo call Grampa, and ask him to come over and "help" (I was fully thinking of letting him do them all) carve some wands, it took a little explaining as to WHY we wanted wands,  and he said of course, and in just a few days time he came over to help. I had went and bought a 3 ft wooden dowel from Walmart, to make three wands. So we cut them down to 2 12 in wands and one 6 in one for Zack. But with having no knowledge about carving wood, I guess a dowel bought at Walmart is definitely the wrong kind of wood to get, both my hubby and my dad told me it is to hard of a wood to carve by hand. So being the very impatient gal I am, and wanting them done immediately, I went and got my little Dremel Tool, and wouldn't let them give up.(it was also a Sunday, and I couldn't run and find another real fast) And it was going great for a while, each girl brought out the picture of the wand they wanted, (I let them look online at all the fantastic wands out there, cause my dad is a great wood carver, he could surely give them what they wanted, right?) and my dad got to work drawing out the design on the dowel. And started carving them out with the Dremel. But then to my horror, he said that maybe we (meaning me and my kiddos) should try to give it a go, and carve them ourselves, I guess thinking that I had more talent then I actually do, and he said we could do it together, like a mother child bond thing. WHAT?!! Well if we were going that route, my kids would have probably have gotten a broken branch off a tree or something. But it was a little late for that now.Of course my kids' only contribution to them, was informing me what they wanted, and "It doesn't look right mom..." comments. Until the end, and they were pretty pleased with them. And myself? Well I was feeling quite pleased with myself too. Pat myself on the back please. It took me two days, and my poor Dremel Tool was a trooper. (only pooped out twice, which my hubby fixed quickly) And I realized afterward, that I didn't get any pictures of the actual carving part, whoops, sorry!

Wha-la!

Whitney wanted a dark stain on hers, and purple on the vines going around it.

Audrey wanted a light, white stain on hers, and gold on the vines.

Zacks wand was my dad's and I creation. My dad started, and I just rolled with it, and I love how it turned out. I wouldn't allow it to be pointy, I already knew it would be used as a sword against his sisters (which it has) and I didn't need any pointy ends stabbing into them either. So this is what we came up with, a wand fit for a two year old.

All I did for Zacks was use a natural stain on it.

And the kids LOVE them, and have played and played with them.

(we have watched enough movies to know that casting spells on your mother is NEVER a good idea)