DIY Wizard Brooms

This tutorial is one of the one's I'm most excited about!!
I was pretty darn proud of myself with how they turned out- and they were the project I was most intimidated about! 
So we're going to talk about creating your own Wizard brooms today and on the cheap too :) 

If you haven't visited in a while, 
a few weeks ago, I shared our epic DIY Harry Potter birthday party. 
If you haven't had a chance to check it out, I'd love for you to swing by here and see all the fun we had! 
There were so many DIY projects that went into the party- I knew that it would be pretty project heavy from the beginning, so I started creating things a couple months before. 

Another plus to all the fun DIY things was that we are in the midst of decorating Little Man's room, and a lot of the elements we used in the party were going to double as room decor after. 

Anywho.
One of the games we wanted to incorporate into the party was some form of Wizard Quidditch. 
If you've read the books or watched the movies, you've seen them play. 
It's basically three hoops on either end and the players have to try and hit the quaffle into the rings for points. 
Then the golden Snitch is the ever-elusive high point ball that can win the game in an instant. 
But the catch is...it's played in the air. 
So we had to create a muggle friendly version. 

For our rings, we mostly followed this awesome tutorial. 

They turned out perfectly and have held up wonderfully so far. 

Though we had some very curious neighbors as to why we were creating huge standing rings.

And it's even more awkward to explain when they've never read/watched Harry Potter. 

So, let's talk creating your own brooms. 

I love these guys for lots of reason!!!

1. They're cheap. 

2. They're cute & rustic-y looking, not like the plastic ones you can buy online as 'props'. So these will be awesome come fall-time for porch decor. 

3. They were super easy to put together once I finally came up with a plan. 

Supplies: 

*2 round dowel rods (found at Hobby Lobby, $1 each) 

*1 package of floral 'twigs' (catch them on 1/2 off)

*I package of floral "Prairie grass" (again, catch them on 1/2 off)

*2 rubber bands

*Duct tape

*A few pieces of burlap ribbon (I used the wide floral kind) 

*Hot Glue Gun

*Spraypaint- I used gold & matte Nutmeg

*Gold Broom Labels (cut with my Silhouette)

All in all, the supplies for both of these rang in under $15. 

Each broom (if you had some of the supplies on hand like I did) were only about $6 bucks a piece. Not bad at all. 

The hardest part (besides figuring out how to put it together well) was to figure out what material to make the bristles out of.

I wanted them to look somewhat old (because. Hogwarts.) and still have a realistic feel to them. 

After browsing Hobby Lobby for the millionth time, I saw this brown prairie grass that looked perfect!

It was somewhat sturdy, it came in a fairly large quantity & the kind I found even had an almost white-washed look to it which made me happy. 

I picked up a bag of the twig-gy looking things too and used them to intersperse throughout. 

I was afraid the prairie grass wouldn't look full enough, but it definitely did.

So you don't have to use the twigs- I liked the texture it gave though!

Here's a better picture of the grass and twigs I bought:

First things first, paint your dowel rods to your desired color. 

I used a mix of hammered copper (not shown), Nutmeg and a little bit of Brilliant Gold. 

I painted the whole thing in the nutmeg color and then just spritzed randomly over the rod with the gold & copper. 

I created broom labels with my Silhouette in gold vinyl. 

We had a 'Nimbus 2000' and a 'Firebolt'. 

I used the trace feature to trace the logos I found via Google. 

They turned out so fun and definitely were a hit at the party! 

After applying them to the ends of each dowel rod, I painted a light coat of Modge Podge over them to help seal it. 

After you've painted your dowel rods, you're ready to assemble the bristles. 

I did mine with several steps to make sure they held together after a bunch of little boys got a hold of them. 

1. Divide the prairie grass into two bundles- I made one slightly larger than the other for whatever reason. 

2. Arrange one of the bundles around the end of the dowel rod (not the end you applied your gold label!!) and make sure to cover the entire end by arranging the grass all around it. 

You can play with it to get it as full as you want. 

3. Once you have it arranged, take a cut rubber band and tie it tightly around the bundle (including the dowel rod- I tied my bundle several inches up the dowel rod to make sure it couldn't fall out easily). 

Tie several times. Don't worry about how pretty it looks- it'll get covered up. 

4. After tying it with the rubber band, take several strips of duct tape and wrap them tightly around the area that you tied with the rubber band.

So the rubber band will be completely covered by the duct tape. 

I left several inches of grass sticking out above the duct tape. 

I used several pieces just for good measure. 

5. After applying the duct tape, I decided to spray paint it gold. 

The burlap I was using had large holes and the duct tape was going to show through it enough. 

So I wanted it to show through gold so people didn't go 'oh nice, duct tape' and all. 

Here's a terrible picture of it painted gold: 

6. After spraying the duct tape, I then wrapped the burlap mesh around the whole thing. 

Hot glue in place, and add a piece of twine wrapped around several times if desired. 

I liked the finish touch it gave.

Below shows one broom with the duct tape showing, and the other with the finished burlap and twine:

All in all, the whole process takes less than 10 minutes!
And you have some super amazing wizard brooms to show from it!!

Little man was ecstatic when he saw them. 

 We propped them up next to the Quidditch rings until it was time to play.
I loved the whole display!!

And a better close-up of the name label: 

We added other fun elements with the two 'Quaffle' balls (the red playground ones) and our own handmade Snitch (below with the wings). 

I tucked them all in an old suitcase I had. 

The snitches were so easy!
I spraypainted a couple of foam balls that I found at Hobby Lobby (they had smiley faces on them), then used an exacto knife to poke a hole in each side. Hot glue those white feathers in and you're golden (haha!)

We also threw in a House Quidditch Cup for good measure...

I happened to have an old trophy that was collecting dust & peeling so I dressed it up with some gold vinyl and the kids thought it was the coolest! 

So there you have it,

the easiest and cheapest way that I could find to come up with some wizard brooms!!

I can't wait to pull them out in the fall for a fun pumpkin display. 

One of them got a lot of love during the party and several of the bristles have come loose but I think it'll be an easy fix. 

And if you're not needing them for any little wizards in your life, be sure to make a couple for a gorgeous fall display!!

Happy Friday friends- I'll be back with my last *tear* Harry Potter party tutorial this weekend so be on the lookout. It's definitely a key ingredient!

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