Jo's daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan, and Jo is planning a Harry Potter themed party for her upcoming 8th birthday. For party favors for the guests, we decided to make some DIY magic wizard wands.

Making DIY Harry Pottery wants is super easy with hot glue and a few basic craft supplies.

Sticks for DIY Harry Potter wands

To create the base for your hot glue wand you'll need 12" dowel rods that are 3/8" wide. This size gives the perfect length and weight to the wand and is easy for kids to handle.

At the end of the dowel, put a 3/8" wooden finial cap which you can attach with just a dab of glue. This gives the perfect base to build your wand on.

Some tutorials suggest using chopsticks or skewers for DIY wands, but we find that the sharp ends can be unsafe for little kids. And the size and weight of the 3/8" dowels we use makes them far more durable.

Adding designs with hot glue

To add texture, use a hot glue gun (low-temp makes more distinct ridges) to apply squiggles, swirls, and other decorative lines to the dowel, focusing most of the detail at the finial end.

Use your imagination here and don't be afraid to add lots of glue! And don't worry about being perfect either, because chances are that it will all look great once you paint it.

Painting over the hot glue design

Next, paint right over the hardened glue, painting the entire wand with a nice base color such as brown, black, or grey.

Make sure you use a good multi-surface acrylic paint that will stick to the glue as well as the wood.

Adding highlights to the wand design

You could stop there, but to really make the wand extra special, you can apply metallic touches to it.

We do this with metallic craft paint, in colors such as silver and gold.

Just load a little bit of paint onto the flat side of a cosmetic sponge...

... then dab it gently onto the raised glue edges to highlight them and add dimension to your finished look.

Sealing the paint for durability

When everything is dry, you can protect the paint finish with a coat of clear acrylic sealer.

The finished DIY Harry Potter Wands

Isn't it amazing the depth you can achieve with the combination of glue and paint colors?

The finished wands are so beautiful and unique that people might not believe you made them.

Harry Potter Wands as party favors or an activity

These wizard wands make great party favors if you make them ahead of time, but you can also have the kids make the wands during the party, as an activity. They'll love creating their own custom wand!

Harry Potter wand box and Ollivanders receipt

And for a really authentic touch, why not put each wand in a wand storage box and add some of our printable Ollivanders receipts to go along with them.