Harry Potter and the Birthday Surprise

I love writing and crafting, but I also love having a roof over my head and eating food. Plus, I have to pay for my crafting habit. In order to do all of this, I have a day job as an academic librarian. I adore my job. I get to spend all day in an academic environment, there are always new challenges, and I work with amazing people.

One of these amazing people had a birthday recently. She is a huge Harry Potter nut, so we decided to decorate her space with a Harry Potter theme. I’ll post pictures of the full decor at the bottom of this entry, but I wanted to share one of my contributions to our little corner of Hogwarts: the Cornish pixie jar. You may remember that Cornish pixies are rambunctious little things that caused quite a lot of havoc when Professor Lockhart let them loose in his Defense Against the Dark Arts Class (in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for the uninitiated). They’re like evil blue fairies on crack.

Naturally it makes sense to keep them safely locked in a jar. So that’s just what we’re going to do.

Supplies:

*Mason jar

*Mod podge

*Food coloring

*Cornish pixie silhouette

For this, I simply typed “cornish pixie silhouette” into Google and was given a host of options.

*Dark colored cardboard or paper

I went full dollar store and simply got black paper plates

*Tea light

Battery operated works best, especially when you don’t want things to catch on fire. You can get boxes of these little guys on Amazon or at your local craft or dollar store.

Step One

Put on your favorite Harry Potter movie or movie soundtrack.

(Note-this is not essential to the craft, but it’s just a lot of fun)

Step Two

Cut out your silhouettes

The size of your silhouettes will depend on the size of the jar you’re using. I used a basic mason jar, so mine were on the smaller size. I started out printing the silhouette on regular paper and then tracing it onto the back of my paper plate. The plates that I got were black on one side and white on the other, so that allowed me to see what I was doing.

Once I traced my pixie, I went about cutting them out using an exacto knife. They have a lot of whirls and curls (ears, fingers, toes, all that good stuff), so I wanted to pay attention to detail. In theory, tracing with the exacto knife/razor blade will allow you to pop the little guy right out when you’re done.

However, we all know that “in theory” doesn’t always apply to artistic endeavors, particularly those that involve a sharp blade and a piece of paper. In short? Always have back ups.

This little dude was a casualty of war. Sorry, friend. Insert one armed man joke here.

Step Three

Attach your pixies to the jar.

This may be easier said than done. Your jar is round and your pixies are flat. You want to glue your pixies to the inside of the jar for maximum silhouette look. I initially started out with three pixies and realised that I would only have room for two. I used mod podge to affix them to the inside of the jar and had a devil of a time with the little buggers. I’m lucky that mod podge dries clear, I’ll tell you what.

I also colored my pixies so both the front and the back were black. I’m not sure that it was absolutely necessary but it gave more of a silhouette feel to me.

Step Four

Once the pixies are safely attacked...er...attached to the jar, it’s time to create the lantern illusion. For this I used even more mod podge. (My friend Dawn refers to me as the Queen of Mod Podge and she isn’t wrong.) However, I didn’t want the jar to appear plain and clear. I wanted it to have more of a blue, ethereal look. More wizard-y, if you will. To achieve this I used a super complicated crafting technique that I’m not sure that you will be able to duplicate. Ready for it?

I added blue food coloring to the mod podge. I know! Move over Martha Stewart. There’s a new domestic goddess in town.

I went with three drops of food coloring in a small (less than an ounce) of mod podge and that was plenty. I wanted a blue tinted looked to my jar, but not a blue painted look. It’s important that you are still able to see the pixie silhouettes. That’s kind of the whole point. Keeping this in mind, I started out with a thin layer of the mod podge. It’s always easier to add more rather than scrape off (oddly the advice is the exact opposite when it comes to writing: it’s usually easier to delete rather than add more...but I digress).

Quick tip: wait for the mod podge to dry before decided you need more or less. It goes on looking heavy and very blue but once my top layer dried I realised that I was going to need more to achieve the look I was going for. Luckily I have plenty of food coloring and glue.

Step Five

Light it up

Once you have the desired shade of blue on your lantern, it’s time to add the light. I have a box full of battery operated tea lights that can be switched on and off. It can be mildly inconvenient to go into the jar  every time you need to turn the light on so it’s understandable if you want to get a light that works on a timer. I am all about crafting on the cheap so I order in bulk. The light looks just as good.

Step Six

Place it in your own little Hogwarts

We decorated the birthday girl’s work space to make her feel like she’d stepped into the Wizard World. In addition to the Cornish pixie jar, we also had a wand making corner, floating candles, birthday banners, and an amazing cake that looked like Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures book. The birthday girl loved it. She told us so once she stopped crying. Photos below.

You can probably see why I love my job and my coworkers. It's so nice to have a little fun to brighten up the day to day blah.

Have you done a Harry Potter themed party? Let me know!