DIY "Wax-Sealed" Harry Potter Invitations

Friends. 
The struggle is so real right now. 
Less than 2 weeks until school is out. 

Which means less than 3 weeks until work is done for the summer. 
The kids can feel it.
I can definitely feel it. 

And the end of the year has just been kicking my butt. 
So I'm hanging in there. 
But just barely. Anyone else in the same boat? 

I've been wanting to sit down and just pump out these last few Harry Potter posts so I can share some different projects I've been working on...and I just haven't had the energy.

So here's to hoping that getting this post out will inspire some sort of energy surge!
And, on top of the crazy work days & lack of motivation, my computer is running as slow as Christmas. 
Anyone else get incredibly frustrated when their machines are running like molasses? 

I digress. 

Let's talk Harry Potter invites.
Because I love coming up with fun invitations to set the tone for the party.
And with Harry Potter, there are so many ways to go about making fun ones. 

We finally decided to keep the invite itself simple and add some fun details to it to make it unique. 

And the best part about these invites is that it was something me and Little Man could do together. He actually told me that this was the 'best day ever' as we were working on them. 

Double points for getting him to do half the work AND enjoying it too :) 

Supply List
*Kraft paper sheets

-I purchased mine at Walmart. They were around $2 for 15 sheets of brown cardstock that were already cut at around a 5x7 size. Slightly smaller. But it meant NO cutting and no prep work for running these through the printer!

*Print Design (I created mine on Picmonkey.com)

*Twine

*Hot Glue Gun

*Red Sculpey Clay (one bar) 

*"H" Stamp

First things first, print your invite design out onto your pre-cut sheets of paper. 

If you didn't find pre-cut, go ahead and just cut the sheets to the size you're using & run them through your printer. 

If you'd like to use my invitation design, head over to this post to download the free printable for it. 

In my free printable invite, I left the details blank (times, dates, address, party type) so go ahead and add those details in yourself. 

Picmonkey.com is a free program that I use all the time. I downloaded the Harry Potter font and the Lumos font to use in my invite. Download these yourself and you can still use them in the Picmonkey program under 'add your own font'.

Once you have your printed invitations, go ahead and start working on creating your 'wax' stamps. 

If you haven't gathered by my crazy use of quotations marks, we are NOT actually using wax :) 

I didn't want to mess with the hot, messy stuff so I came up with this version. 

Easy enough for me and my 8 year old to do together. 

For the seals, gather your red Sculpey clay & your stamp. 

I used an "H" for Hogwarts. 

A regular rubber stamp would probably work better but I used the acrylic one I had on hand. 

Pinch off small pieces of the red clay, roll them into balls and then flatten them out. 

I didn't want mine to look perfectly round because they were supposed to be emulating poured wax- (Can I get a Hallelujah for crafts that don't have to be perfect?!?). 

Make rows of these on a cookie sheet. 

To get your imprint, simply push your stamp down into the clay, making sure it leaves an imprint underneath. 

I let Little Man do this part and he took it very seriously. 

After creating enough for your invites, pop them into the oven and bake according to the package instructions (they don't take long at all!). 

After they are baked, they'll be the perfect little addition to your invites!
Give yourself a pat on the back for creating your own crazy-awesome looking seals!! 

Then gather your supplies & actually put those puppies together.

This is where you'll need the twine, hot glue, the wax seals & your printed invites. 

Fold your printed invite into thirds, I made it so the two ends slightly overlapped each other, so it looked like a letter. 

Take your twine & tie it tightly around the invite, snipping the ends off. 

I pulled the tied part to the back of the invite so it wouldn't interfere with placing the seal. 

If they were real wax, they'd just cover the tied part & do its job. 

But hey, we can't all be as perfect as real wax. 

Take your faux wax seals and hot glue them to the front of your invite, where the overlap is. 

Then step back and look at that invite- it was practically made at Hogwarts!! 

We had so much fun putting these together- and Little Man loved handing them out to his friends at school and soccer. 

They may look expensive to do but most people will pay at least 5-10$, even if you're using pre-made cards & envelopes. 

All together, I spent about $10 for supplies (not counting the ink I used). 

Not too terrible considering how fun & unique they turned out!!

Didn't they turn out fun? 

And I know you're now dying to make some of your own wax-less wax seals, aren't you? 

Don't forget that you can get the free download for the invite here. 

And if you're wanting more fun ideas and pictures for your own Harry Potter party, I'd love for you to check out our version here. 

Here's to hoping that the next two weeks fly by (no pun intended) and that I'll get enough motivation to get the rest of these HP posts knocked out soon :) 

Happy Tuesday friends!

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