Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Hogwarts Charms, Spells and Potions Book

















I wish I could say this was easy. I found the information on the internet and thought oh this will be easy enough to copy into Word, change the font and print at home. I didn't count on Word having some major formatting and spacing issues that took hours to fix. I assume this is because I was copying web content.

I thought I'd be able to print them at home but then realized that a 50 page booklet isn't easy to print if you don't have a duplexing printer. So I thought I'd have it done at Fedex Kinko's. But they didn't have the paper I wanted so I bought that from the Paper Zone and brought my custom stock with me. The black cardstock was thick and with 12 pages of paper the booklets had to be trimmed to look their best. After the hours I'd put in I figured $5 extra was worth it.

Then I had my husband design the labels using a Hogwarts crest image I found on the internet. We made some modifications in Photoshop and printed them onto full sheet (8 1/2 x 11") labels I purchased at Office Depot. I then cut them with a paper cutter and applied them to my booklets.

I was surprised at the amount of time and money these booklets took but in the end it was worth it. The kids loved them. I anticipate my kids will use them for years. There are references to the books which I hope are accurate but figure if they aren't it'll give the kids something to do to check them.

*Edited on 8/20/10. As I said above I got the information for my booklet off the internet. It would be illegal for me to sell the booklets and I don't feel comfortable giving them to others.  If you want to make them yourself that is your choice but as I warn, it was a LOT of work and they are expensive to print. How I did it is explained above. For those whove been unable to find the spell information themselves you can find a list of the spells on Wikipedia and the potions and ingredients at The Harry Potter Lexicon.  There are probably other sources for this information as well.

8 comments:

  1. I want one of these!! How did u make them?!!!!!

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  2. yes how did you make these? where do i get the information? im having a harry potter party for my son next month and would love to add these! thanx :)

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  3. These ROCK!!! Any chance I can get a copy so I can make them for my son's b-day party?

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  4. My son's Harry Potter Party is this weekend. Any chance that you are sharing? brandylee@me.com

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  5. I would love to use this for my daughter's HP party! Would you please send me a copy? leslieseeley@gmail.com

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  6. Greetings.
    My son would also love to have any information you could provide on this fun idea. Thank you in advance. My email jrketterling@charter.net

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  7. Hello,
    my name is Kelly and my daughter is having a harry potter birthday party.I was wondering if u can send me some information about this casts and spells book..thanxz so much..
    email me at kcorey05@gmail.com

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  8. can i get a copy of this- am willing to pay for it:) jrmontessori@gmail.com

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