DIY “Harry Potter” Halloween Decorations

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I especially love all of the amazing Harry Potter Halloween decorations my family makes. Here are a few of them you can make for your own house this Halloween.

 

1) Floating Pumpkins

 

 

To create this, you’re going to first need several craft foam pumpkins, which can be bought at Michaels. Carve a jack-o-lantern face into each of the pumpkins, I recommend you use a template so they all look the same. To hang the pumpkins, use clear fishing line, and anchor it by two points on top of the pumpkin. To tack it to the ceiling, run the fishing line over a small strip of clear hard plastic with V’s cut out at the ends, with the tack in the middle, as seen below. Finally, put LED tea lights inside to make them light up.

 

 

 

2)  Smoke-Breathing Dragon

 

For this, you can either make the dragon head with chicken wire, masking tape, and craft foam scales, or even out of papier-mâché, or you can buy a large latex dragon mask. All options are fine. Once you have the head, find a place for it to poke out of, such as a bush or alcove. In the location you’ve picked, set up a fog machine to produce the smoke. Then use Corex lawn drainage tubing to pipe the fog from the machine to the dragon’s mouth. Use soft foam to fill up the rest of the head’s shape and keep the tubing in place.

 

3) Screaming Mandrake

 

 

First sculpt the mandrake’s body out of Crayola Model Magic. Next get some fake leaves and moss from a place like Michaels. Push the leaves into the top of the mandrake’s head and glue down. When the Model Magic and glue dries, paint the mandrake brown. Get a pot for the mandrake, and use scrunched up newspaper to keep it upright. Then take the speaker/battery pack for a Halloween screaming doormat and hide it in the pot. Then cover the newspaper and speaker with the fake moss. After that, just place the mandrake by your front door, and the screaming mat under your regular doormat. The mandrake will scream every time the doormat is stepped on.

 

4) Remote Control Spiders (a.k.a. Aragog’s Children)

 

 

Carve the body of the spider out of Styrofoam sheets that have been stacked and glued together. In order to keep the spider lightweight, hallow out the bottom of the spider’s body to fit the shape of the remote-control car it’s being mounted on. Also make sure there is a small hole for the car’s antenna to poke through. Next is the legs. Carve each leg segment out of the foam separately. Since the legs are more fragile, you will take those segments and thread a 12 gauge wire through them, bending the wire where each segments joins, and attach the legs to the spider using the wire and glue. Then paint the spider legs and body black and cover it in fur. We used the fur that our Siberian Husky had shed, but fake is fine. Then put in black marbles for eyes, and attach fake bear claws for fangs, and you’re done.

 

 

 

5) Talking Sorting Hat

 

 

Hat puppet for this. The tree has a jack plug where a tape, CD, or microphone can be attached to make the tree say whatever you want, and the tree comes with the cables to do this. Next strip all the greenery off the tree, which will look like the picture below. You can leave the stump as a stand, and just wind a Hogwarts scarf around it for Halloween. Then drill or punch small holes in the tree’s eyelids and use those to attach the eyebrows of the Sorting Hat puppet. Then do the same to the lower jaw of the tree, attaching the fishing wire to the lower lip of the puppet. This will make the Sorting Hat’s eyes and mouth move as it speaks. Finally, make a tape of your best Sorting Hat impression, and hook that tape up to the hat. It’s easier if you set the tape or CD to loop automatically.

 

 

 

Have a haunted Halloween, everyone!