With spring just around the corner and rainy days ahead, parents all over can already hear; “I’m bored!” Are you prepared for when those outbursts come? It’s time to stock up those activity cabinets so you’ll be ready when that first stormy cloud rolls into the sky.

Rainy days can be a bummer for kids stuck indoors. That doesn’t mean they can’t have fun though! This is the perfect time for them to start a new book, work on new project or let their creativity run wild with an art set. Here are some fun and rainy day activities to keep kids of all ages entertained for hours.

Always remember to check out your kids crafts to make sure they are age appropriate first. Some rainy day activities listed below contain small pieces and paints which may not be suitable for some ages.

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CHARM BRACELET KIT // MERMAID BOOK SET // ART SET // THE ULTIMATE CRAFT BOX // HOW TO DRAW CUTE STUFF BOOK // MOLDING CLAY // FRIENDSHIP BRACELET KIT // ANNE OF GREEN GABLES BOOK SET // WISH BOOK // 3-D PARIS PUZZLE // GEM KEYCHAIN KIT

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COLOR CADDY // CITY PLAY RUG // HOT WHEELS SET // SOLAR SUN CATCHERS // DINOSAUR PUZZLES // DOODLE DINO // SEARCH & FIND // DINOSAUR COLORING BOOK // SPACE CRAFT SET // MAGIC TREE HOUSE BOOK SET // WOODEN CARS KIT

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CURIOUS MINDS BOOK // ART SET // THE CITY OF EMBER BOOK SET // THE HARDY BOYS BOOK SET // MAGIC SET // 3-D PIRATE SHIP PUZZLE // 3-D EMPIRE STATE BUILDING PUZZLE // SCIENCE KIT // SNAP CIRCUITS KIT // SOLAR ROBOT KIT

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Looking for a project to work on while binge-watching all of your favorite Halloween movies? This. Is. It! Grab your favorite movie, light your favorite autumn candle, pour yourself some hot apple cider and let’s begin! I’ll be focusing on Gryffindor colors below but the pattern remains the same for every house.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

What you’ll need

Circular needle size US 6

3 balls of burgundy yarn by Loops & Threads Impeccable

1 ball of gold yarn by Loops & Threads Impeccable

Steel yarn needle

Scissors

Pattern

Cast on 61 loops

Knit 30 rows in your primary color (ex. burgundy)

Knit 3 rows in your secondary color (ex. gold)

Knit 6 rows in your primary color

Knit 3 rows in your secondary color

Repeat this pattern until you’ve reached the desired length.

Helpful videos

Casting on

Joining in the round

Changing color

Basic bind off

Several years ago, a group of friends and I decided to take a trip to the magical realm of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Since our trip wasn’t until after Christmas, I decided to make everyone a Harry Potter themed scarf of their house choosing as a Christmas gift. Before this endeavor, I had only knit a scarf once in high school, so I’m no pro! If you’re new to knitting as well, I highly recommend watching the videos I listed above. These taught me everything I needed to know in order to make the scarves. They’re also great to watch if you need a refresher.

The Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn is amazing! They have the perfect colors for every house. They’re machine washable, the color doesn’t bleed and I swear they get softer with each wash!

When you begin your scarf, make sure to leave about 12 in. of extra yarn at the beginning. Once you’re finished with the scarf you’ll go back and sew this through the end to close it. Below are some in-progress photos of a Gryffindor scarf. It may look a bit chaotic on the inside but it will look seamless on the outside. When I transition colors, I leave about four inches of the color I just ended on before I cut. I then tie the new color on at the base of the color I just ended. Once the row is complete, go back to the two colors of string, pull in any slack that may have occurred and double knot it.

By doing a jogless stitch when transitioning colors, you’ll have a nearly perfect transition. In the photo below, you can see that a column of gold yarn only has two rows instead of three. This is where you carried up a loop to make it blend into the next row. If you don’t know how to do a jogless stitch, I recommend watching the “changing color” video linked above.

When you’re done with your scarf, measure out 12 in. of extra yarn before cutting it off from the ball. Lie your scarf on the floor and line up all of the areas where you did the jogless stitch. With your steel yarn needle, take your extra yarn and sew the ends of the scarf together. Next, cut pieces of yarn 4 in. long. With these pieces, take your steel yarn needle, and starting at one end, weave them through the bottom of the scarf one at a time and tie them. This was the old way I was doing it and boy did it take forever! Thankfully, you learn as you go. Instead of threading on one little piece of yarn at a time, cut one long piece and thread it onto your needle. Sew it through the edge of the scarf and cut the yarn, leaving enough on either side to tie. Continue this process until you’ve added all of the tassels. Once you’ve done this across the entire edge, you can go over them with scissors and cut them down to the length you want. I went pretty short to mimic Harry Potter’s scarf from the movies. Repeat on the other end of the scarf.

For an added touch of authenticity, you can add an iron on patch of your household!

I hope this Harry Potter scarf brings some magic to your day! For other Harry Potter related crafts, click here!

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This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

This is the perfect craft to do while binge-watching Harry Potter movies. The movies are quick to get you in the spirit, plus they’ll distract you from how long this will take!

For the cards, I turned to Google and printed the best images I found. The backs aren’t in English but they fit the boxes perfectly so I was happy with them. If you’d like to use the images I found then you can download the three pages here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3. There are many others out there, just make sure they’ll fit in your chocolate frog boxes before you print and cut them all out.

I used an x-acto knife and a ruler to cut them out to give them a clean line. You can of course use scissors if you prefer.

Supplies

• Card stock paper
• Scissors
• X-acto knife
• Cutting mat
• Clear packing tape
• Tacky glue
• Ruler

Match up the professor card with their description. Add a little glue on the back of the front card, match the edges up as best as you can with their description and glue them together. Trim the edges if you see any sides that are longer. Take packing tape and put strips on both the front and the back to create a laminated effect. Once everything is in place, trim off the excess tape. If you have a laminator, put it to use! I don’t have one so this is my hack to achieve the effect.

Time to make the boxes! I found these printables from A Tale of Two Stories on Etsy. For only $5 you’ll get the design for not only the chocolate frog boxes but also for Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizbees, Exploding Bon Bons, and Cockroach Clusters! I just checked the site to make sure this is still up and they are! They’ve also added another printable package for $8 that includes all of these candy boxes plus invitations, candy labels and a Honeydukes sign! Even though I already have the candy box PDF’s I’m temped to purchase their new package.

Once the boxes are cut out, begin to fold and glue. I found that the bottom was slightly too big and wouldn’t hold the top down if I followed the printout exactly so I overlapped a few edges more than you would originally in order for the top to fit snuggly. Use your first box as your tester to get the sizing right. You may need to pull it apart and refold a few times before you find what works best. I used the Scotch tacky glue for the corners. It dries very quickly so you don’t have to sit there all night holding the edges together. I used double sided tape for the flaps just so that I wouldn’t create too much of a mess with the glue. Be careful, this is ink on paper without any kind of finish so if you touch the design with gluey fingers, it’ll smear.

For the chocolate frogs, I used this plastic mold. Melt chocolate chips, fill the mold and put it in the fridge until they’re solid. When you fill the mold, go slowly and make sure the chocolate fills every part of it, especially the eyes. If you just pour the chocolate in, it tends to not get into every eye and wart.

The only thing left to do is to set up the boxes and enjoy the reactions of all when they see which wizarding card they get! For more Harry Potter party decorations, see my full post here.

To learn how to make the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans boxes, click here.

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Bertie Bott’s Beans Boxes Tutorial

Crafters, start your Harry Potter movie marathon and grab a glass of wine, this is gonna take a while.

I found these printables from A Tale of Two Stories on Etsy. For only $5, you’ll get the design for not only the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans Boxes but also for Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees, Exploding Bon Bons, and Cockroach Clusters! I just checked the site to make sure this is still available and it is! They’ve also added another printable package for $8 that includes all of these candy boxes plus invitations, candy labels and a Honeydukes sign! Even though I already have the candy box PDF’s I’m very temped to purchase their new package.

Supplies

• Card stock paper
• Scissors
• X-acto knife
• Cutting mat
• Double sided tape
• Tacky glue
• Ruler

I used scissors to cut most of the access paper away but then brought out an x-acto knife to cut into the tight corners. Use a ruler to slice against to get those crisp lines.

Side note, make sure you keep track of your x-acto blades. If you happen to drop one in your carpet without noticing you could end up in the ER getting a stitch in your foot at 11 p.m. I know this from experience because a friend told me.

I’ve seen some tutorials of this box where the crafter will cut the windows out and then stick a plastic bag of jelly beans inside. This is a great solution and will save you a ton of time! Since I’m an over achiever though, I added clear plastic to the windows so that I could fill the whole box with jelly beans, giving it a more authentic look. To do this, take a clear plastic bag and cut pieces a little larger than each window, this is so that you will have enough excess plastic to secure it down. Put a layer of double sided tape along each edge of the window and secure the plastic in place. Fold the box and use tacky glue along the side and bottom to hold it together. To give the bottom of the box extra support so the beans don’t fall out, I cut a square of poster board and glued it to the bottom.

Once the glue is dry, fill the boxes with jelly beans and enjoy! For more Harry Potter crafts, check out my full post here Harry Potter Birthday Party.

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Harry Potter wands are without a doubt one of the most popular elements from the wizarding world. They’re easy to make and are perfect for any Harry Potter party gift bag!

Make sure to stock up on that hot glue because you’re going to be using a lot of it! The best part about this DIY is that you have complete creative freedom. You can base your designs off of your favorite Harry Potter characters wand or come up with a unique design that best fits your personality.

Supplies

• Chop sticks
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Paint
• Brushes
• Clear sealer spray
• Beads (if you want to add some texture)
• Tin container

Start your design by layering hot glue on a chopstick. If you want to add more texture, you can incorporate beads or other small trinkets. For the wand pictured below, I stuck fake pearls on as I swirled hot glue up the wand. After they were on I went back over them on either side with more hot glue to make sure they were secure.

For the wand below, I covered the whole chop stick in a thick layer of hot glue. I then went over it with just the hot tip of the glue gun to melt away the glue and create the design I wanted. The sky’s the limit for this project! For more wand design ideas, I recommend this YouTube video. They show you exactly how they decorate wands (which look amazing!), and have other videos on Harry Potter DIY crafts as well.

After the wands were designed, I put them in a disposable tray where I painted them and let them dry.

For the finishing touch, I went over all of them with a dark brown paint. I had purchased a black and dark orange paint to use as well but I was happy with the dark brown and decided to stick with it for all of them. Next, I went over pieces of the wand with a metalic paint to make these  details stand out. After painting them I sprayed them with a clear sealer. Once they were dry, I laid them out in an old suite case for display.

Check out some of my other Harry Potter crafts! Click here to see an entire party set up with links on how I did each craft.

The post Harry Potter Wands appeared first on Candidly Crafted.

Supplies

• Plastic eggs
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Sand paper

Of all the Harry Potter crafts I’ve made, this was definitely the easiest! These dragon egg decorations are a great decoration addition for Harry Potter-themed parties. They can also be used for other events such as medieval parties. For the eggs, I used plastic Easter eggs that were collecting dust in one of my many craft bins. To start, sandpaper down the line where the two halves meet.

Next, take your hot glue gun and draw small U’s around the egg, starting at the top and working your way down while connecting the next set of U’s to the ones above. I chose to paint my eggs with some metallic colors to make them pop along side all of my other Harry Potter decorations.

For display, I filled a box with moss and set them on top.

The post Dragon Eggs DIY appeared first on Candidly Crafted.

• Envelopes
• Coffee
• Cookie tray
• Green pen
• Red wax or candle
• Wax stamper
• Clear cord
• Tape
• Mini lights (optional)

To give the letters an aged look I soaked them in coffee. I left them in for only ten minutes, making sure the entire envelope was saturated. If you want to experiment with leaving them in longer, go for it. I’m not sure if that will result in a darker color or not but I found that ten minutes gave me the look I wanted. Be careful when you take them out. Since they’ve been soaking, the glue no longer holds the flaps down and the envelope will come undone if you aren’t careful. If this happens just fold it back together and let it dry. If they’re still lose after they’ve dried then run a glue stick over the flaps and press them down.

I experimented with drying them three different ways: 1. air drying, 2. the oven, and 3. a hairdryer. Personally, I liked the results of air drying the best. When I used the oven I set the temp at 250 degrees and only placed them in for several minutes. If you do this approach please be careful and keep your eye on them. I was surprised how much they puffed up from drying this way. Using a hair dryer puffed them up even more! Air drying doesn’t mean they’ll come out completely flat but it was the closest I came to it. Since this approach takes the longest time, plan on leaving them out for at least a day. Once they’re completely dry you can put a heavy book over them to flatten them more if desired.

If you have good penmanship then all you need for the written part are envelops and a green pen. I myself am a perfectionist and wanted them to look exactly like the letters from movie. To achieve this I printed out an envelope sized image of the envelope used in the movie, traced over the writing in a black pen to make it darker and then placed it on a glass table with a light underneath. The light can either be a lamp, flashlight or the flashlight app from your phone. Place the light under the glass table so it’s shining up at you underneath your print out. Then place the envelope over top of it. Press down on the envelope so you can see the writing from the print out and trace the lettering in green ink.

For the wax seal, I bought a thin red candle and held it over each envelope to let a few drops drip onto the back. I’ve read other crafting blogs where clay was used instead. I tried that method first but found the clay didn’t stick very well. Fun fact, if you want to be book accurate, the wax on Harry Potter’s letters was actually purple. For some reason the movie changed it to be red which is now how it’s always represented.

To make it look like they were coming out of the fireplace I taped long strands of clear cord from the fireplace to the ceiling. I placed the strands at varying distances away from the fireplace on the ceiling so they weren’t all lined up evenly. Next, take a small piece of tape and attach the cord to the back of the envelope. For an added touch of magic I ran a strand of mini lights up and down two of the strands.

The post Hogwarts Letters appeared first on Candidly Crafted.

Supplies

• 14 in. wood embroidery hoop
• 10 in. wood embroidery hoop
• Fabric strips
• Fabric glue
• Double sided tape
• Clear cord
• Keys
• Transparent paper
• Cricut (optional)
• Scissors
• Clear Command hooks (for hanging)

A lot of my decorations are things that I’ve seen on Pinterest, Google, Etsy, you name it. Every now and then though I’ll come up with something unique. This is one of those pieces. I of course wanted to incorporate the floating keys into a decoration but I wanted to add a little something extra to them rather than just hang them from the ceiling. For a birthday party I was asked to decorate I was given the challenge of creating a Gryffindor common room. It’s not difficult to work their colors into the blankets and pillows but I wanted there to also be a statement piece. I was gathering the material to make a Marauders Map tie blanket at JOANN when I found these long strips of red and yellow fabric in the discount bin. From there my mind went spinning!

What I ended up with was some type of cloth draped key mobile. And I love it! I have a few updates in mind I’ll make when I have the time. One would be to add fabric to fill in-between the strips so it doesn’t look so bare. The other thing would be to add another hoop between the 14 in. and 10 in. so that the keys hang down lower. Almost giving the center a chandelier look.

With the 14 in. hoop I alternated between red and yellow strips. I first placed a layer of double sided tape along the outer edge of the hoop to hold down the fabric as I wrapped it around. Make sure that you wrap all of your fabric in the same direction so that when it comes time to hang it up there aren’t some pieces showing the wrong side. You can tell it’s the wrong side because the color will look dull. I stuck one end of the fabric on the hoop, wrapped it around the hoop once and when it came back to the outer edge I put a small line of fabric glue down and pressed the strip over it. Press down on the fabric and wipe away any excess glue that comes out. I glued four strips at a time and then let them dry before doing more. 

Once the large hoop was finished I moved onto the 10 in. hoop. At first I alternated by wrapping both red and yellow fabric strips around it but I wasn’t a fan of how it looked. I ended up wrapping the whole thing in orangish gold strips that came in the yellow pack.

While the hoops dried I got to work on the keys, which I found at Spirit Halloween. I found the wing design through a simple Google search. I uploaded the JPEG into my Cricut Design Space and removed the white space around the wing so that only the wing pattern remained. From that the Cricut was able to look at the design and draw out the wings. I had it draw out three different sizes so I could see what size would work best.

I ended up using two sizes, the small and the medium. I duplicated each size in the design space as many times as needed and then had the Cricut draw out the wings on the clear paper. If you don’t have a Cricut but like the idea of having the wings on clear paper you can always print out the wings and trace them by hand. I take full advantage of my Cricut and use it whenever possible. Before I glued the wings onto the keys I first tied a piece of clear cord onto them. As I mentioned in my floating candles post, this cord doesn’t keep a knot very well. After you tie it around the key, place a drop of hot glue on it to keep it from becoming undone. You’ll later hide this by gluing the wing over it. Cut the cord at different lengths so that the keys aren’t all hanging on the same plane.

To attach the two hoops I measured out four strands of clear cord, tying one end to the 14 in. hoop and the other to the 10 in. hoop evenly spacing them apart. Next I tied the keys all around the 10 in. hoop. Remember, put a small drop of hot glue on each knot to make sure it stays. I didn’t have a problem with any of them coming undone from this method but when I add onto this decoration I’ll try a different kind of cord.

Hanging it up was a bit tricky. What worked in the end were clear Command hooks. Not saying this is the best way to hang this up but it never fell and hit a kid so I consider that a win! I used six hooks and evenly spaced them apart. I stuck three down on one side first, placed the hoop within the hooks and then hooked the hoop with the other three and stuck them to the ceiling. This made sure that the hoop was resting tightly in all the hooks to keep it from slipping out. To make the strips stick to the ceiling I used a few rolled pieces of blue painters tape. It just so happened that this was the perfect size to put around this small ceiling vent. When the air kicked on it looked like the keys were moving around which gave it an extra magical touch.

The post Key Mobile appeared first on Candidly Crafted.

If you know this is a decoration you’ll be making, then start saving your paper towel roles and toilet paper roles a few months in advance. Like anything now a days, I’m sure you can also buy cardboard roles on Amazon. (I was curious and just checked. The answer is yes, you can!) The clear cord I found at Michaels near their jewelry section. I’ve read other DIY posts where fishing line was used. I feel like I live at Michaels sometimes so it was only natural that jewelry making cord was the first type of clear cord I thought of. The next time I make these I’ll try the fishing line.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

Supplies

• Paper towel/toilet paper roles
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• White paint
• Paint brush
• Clear jewelry cord
• Tea lights
• Scissors
• Pliers

Start by cutting the tubes into varying lengths. I always cut a small dip in the center rather than a straight line across. I felt it gave it a little more of an authentic look. To give it a softer edge I traced the cut top in hot glue first. From there I added 2-3 layers of hot glue lines that I ran down the sides to give the wax dripping effect. Layering the lengths gives the appearing that the “candle” had been lit at different times. I typically made one long length that went about 3/4 of the way down, the second one I ran half way down the first layer, and the last I kept relatively short and closer to the top. Make sure you stock up on the hot glue, you’ll be using a lot of it! I’ve seen other crafters use some heavy duty glue guns which probably would have been the smart thing for me to invest in. I bought this mini one years ago and had left over glue sticks from past projects so I didn’t feel the need to buy a new one. I’ll probably put it on the Christmas list this year.

Next step is painting! Spray paint would probably be the quickest way to go. Since I don’t have the room to do that I used white craft paint. I applied two layers on the outside and one layer on the inside. By the time the painting came I was at the end of my patience rope and as I tried to rush through it I think I got just as much paint on my kitchen counter and floor as I did on the tubes. Yes I did have newspaper down, I’m just that talented.

Once everything is dry, take out a tea light and measure how far into the tube you’ll need to put it so that only the flame is showing. When you have an idea of where it needs to sit you’re going to use a large needle to poke two holes through the tube, one on either end. With the layers of glue it was a bit difficult to poke it through. I found that pliers were helpful with guiding the needle in and out. Next thread your cord through. Make the lengths of your cord varying sizes as well so that the candles float at different levels. The one downside to the jewelry cord is that it isn’t very keen on holding knots. What I ended up doing was tying a knot at the top and added a drop of hot glue over it to make sure it didn’t come undone.

I used regular clear scotch tape to stick them to the ceiling. If you want to be certain that floating candles won’t fall on your guests, you can also secure them to the ceiling with a push pin.

The post Harry Potter DIY Floating Candles appeared first on Candidly Crafted.

If you really want to confuse a Menards employee, tell them you’re looking for material to build a Quidditch set! It’ll take a second for them to accept they heard you correctly and then will give you a look that says, “I sure hope you know what material you need for that, because I haven’t got a clue.” Thankfully through a lot of Pinteresting and a friend’s help, I knew exactly what I was looking for. I’ve seen plenty of tutorials where PVC piping was used for the stands which I’m sure works just as well. I happened to have a friend who had the copper pipes from a previous Harry Potter party she threw so I was able to borrow them for the day. She no longer had the hoops but was able to tell me everything she bought which made the shopping a whole lot easier.

The tubing I used was Apollo PEX-b 1/4″ x 5′. At the store when I tried out the Tee to make sure the pipe fit in it I didn’t have a problem. What I didn’t realize was that the other side was ever so slightly smaller and I couldn’t fit the other end of the pipe in. That’s when I needed to be a little creative and used a hex key wrench to stretch it out. Thankfully this worked perfectly! After a few tugs all the way around I was able to get the piping to fit into both ends. They fit in pretty snug but I wrapped duct tape around both ends just in case.

If you have the time and the room outside to spray paint the hoops then go for it! As mentioned in my Silhouette Frame post, I don’t have much room for spray painting projects so I had to think outside the box for how to change up the color. Walking through the isles of Michaels I came across these gold streamers and had that “it just might work” lightbulb moment. And thankfully it did! It took some time to wrap them all but it was cheap and there was no mess to worry about afterwards. I was able to wrap all six hoops with one steamer and have plenty left over. I wrapped them around tightly and only had to add tape at the beginning and end.

This set was put together specifically for a birthday party I was hired to decorate. The morning of the party the family drew lines on their yard to mark out the playing field. With the hoops in place everything looked amazing. (The poles went into the ground easily with a few hits from a rubber mallet.) For the game itself, the kids were all given broomsticks and balls to toss around. I’m not sure what rules they came up with but it looked like everyone had a blast!

Supplies

• 6 pipes (sets of 2 at varying heights)
• 6 pieces of flexible tubing (5 ft. long)
• 6 nylon barb tee’s (1/2″)
• Duct tape
• 1 pkg of gold streamers

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