Monday, December 21, 2015

Our Harry Potter Tree 2015

I didn't make too many changes to the Potter tree this year, but who could pass up the chance to post more pictures of this sparkliness??


We added my Wizard chess set to the room on a tray John built from scratch. It's not quite done yet - I plan to add some gold flourishes to the sides - so I'll post another picture when it is.

I upgraded our Hedwig tree topper by giving her outstretched wings. The idea hit me when I found these $5 angel wings at JoAnn's last Halloween:

The wings came with elastic straps for a toddler to wear. I just cut those off, cut the wings apart (they were joined together with Styrofoam) and then poked heavy wire through in a C shape to attach them to the owl body:

I like how much bigger they make her!

We also added a few more little owls. We're always on the lookout for nice feathered owl ornaments now:


Unfortunately Hedwig tends to get lost in the white ceiling in photos, but at least you can see her better IRL.


Another small upgrade: I repainted the floating candles so the aging would show up better:

Before and after.

Now some pretty tree close-ups:

I nixed the flying keys this year, but still have plenty of snitches, broomsticks, parchment scrolls, potions bottles, and one-offs like Luna's glasses, the Marauder's Map, a chocolate frog box, and a mini Monster Book of Monsters.

And thanks to some of you awesome readers, I have new goodies this year! The little Harry & Ron sweaters are redonkulously squee-worthy, then there's the floating Howler ornament, a Hogwarts crest, and other pretty paper bits:

You guys are totally outclassing me here, I want you to know that.

 Here's Ron's sweater:

 

My only new contribution was the little cauldrons, stuffed with wisps of sparkly cotton "smoke."


Next year I hope to make the parchment scrolls with floating quills a lot bigger and longer, so they extend down the whole length of the tree, like ribbon garland:


Aaand one final up-tree shot:


I hope you guys liked the eye candy, since my annual Christmas House Tour is coming up next! (AKA, the one time a year our house is SUPER clean and sparkly, which only happens for these pictures, and which only lasts about 30 minutes before explosive crafting and/or CATS and/or aimless snacking happens to mess it all up again.)

32 comments:

  1. I can't get over how great this tree is. My personal taste tends toward an unthemed tree full of lights of every color and fancy ornaments mixed in with plastic and homemade ones, but this is making me think that when I buy a house (hopefully in 2016), I should get a bigger tree to leave unthemed and make my current little tree a Potter tree.

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    1. WARNING: Once you ramble down the path of "1 non-themed tree and 'Oh, I love this theme' for another" you're sliding ass over teakettle down the slippery slope to house-full-of-trees. I know. *sobbing*

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  2. Those sweaters are so darn CUTE! Love all the details and bits and part of the "Harry Potter" world you incorporated in this. Well done, Jen and John (thoj)!
    Maureen S

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  3. still loving my Harry Potter tree that i made up last year. :)

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  4. Can't wait to see your shiny sparkly house! Such fun!

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  5. It is absolutely gorgeous! I love Hedwig with the wings! That was the first thing I saw in the first picture, so not so much with the blending into the ceiling. I need to make a tree like this. The only problem, I'd likely never want to take it down. Your two trees are perfection. Love both of them. Thank you for posting. Coming here always gets my crafty bone itching. : D

    -Just Andrea

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  6. Heh, I just noticed the Dementor on the train! I did not remember him. Love it!

    -Just Andrea

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  7. No real decorating here (with the new puppy and the cats, it was just sadness waiting to happen), but I did get to decorate at work. I cut out a ton of snow flakes and hung them from the ceiling with fishing line, near an air vent so they sway a bit like they are falling. I hung them like your floating candles, in a circle around a tree a coworker brought in. I love making paper snowflakes, and so happy my coworkers like them. Enough that they want to leave them up past Christmas. :D

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  8. Oh, good. You'll be amused to know, my first reaction to the steampunk tree was "but where's the train?" Then I realized that was the wrong tree.

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  9. Hedwig was way cool before, but now? INCREDIBLE!
    #greatjob!

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  10. Jen,

    Do you have a sock for Dobby?

    Maureen

    P.S. It was great to see you in Pittsburgh!

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  11. OMG!!! How do you do the floating candles?? Do you have a tutorial online already for them?

    LOVE! LOVE! LOVE everything about this!!!

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    1. http://www.epbot.com/2014/12/harry-potter-inspired-floating.html

      Is the tutorial from last year!

      x

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  12. 'Aimless snacking' - not I'm super interested to know what purposeful snacking is and - more importantly - how I can get in on snacking for a purpose.

    Tree stunning as always. Definitely think the topper is hugely improved with the wings! A++

    Lewis x

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  13. This tree is my inspiration for when we buy a house. Right now we just have a small Scooby Doo themed tree and then a general sentimental ornaments tree (though I do jazz it up with some candy cane ribbons). Just a quick question, how do you get some of those ornaments to stay on since a lot look like they are floating?? Do you wire them in? I'm taking notes for the future!

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    1. Hmm, depends which ornaments you mean. Most are hung with simple wire hangers, but some - like the parchment scrolls - are just tucked into the branches, and then the open parchment with floating quills are attached to the branches with little alligator clips glued to the back side. So let's just say if you were to give the tree a really good thump, a lot of stuff would fall out. :D

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  14. As a maker and crafter with a clinical case of Ornadementia, I've been wondering how to "move on" from ornament collections after a few years. Your Christmas Tree tour has provided the answer in part - donate collections for a beautiful decorated tree to be auctioned off. Or donate them to a school group trying to do a tree for a similar type show. Thanks for helping me find a useful way to just have an excuse and the space to make MORE MORE MORE. ;)

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    1. I must say that I prefer the term "ornadementia" to being called a "christmas idiot"...

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  15. Your tree is beyond perfect! I cannot even take how much I love it! I was just showing last year's tree off to a friend of mine, and now I have to send her the updated post so she can admire it. The candles look even more awesome, and I love Hedwig's wings!!! Thank you for sharing this with us, because it really does make others happy!

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  16. Seeing those wings during Halloween and realizing they'd be perfect for Hedwig was brilliant! She looks so awesome with outstretched wings. Really the perfect, dramatic topper now!

    Love that tray John built for the wizard chess set! That would be an excellent solution for anyone with cats that knock pretties off tables. I know Lily and Tonks are too classy for that kind of behavior, but I'm sure not many people with cats could display chess sets on a standard board without the cats interpreting that as a challenge to see how many lovingly crafted pieces could be swiped and batted onto the floor.

    The repainted candle aging looks good, too, although now some of the "drips" look like giant sperm. Awwww! That li'l guy that's swimming lowest on the darker candle is particularly adorable. (You're welcome for the mental imagery.)

    That is a fabulously beautiful tree! And, the contributions your readers have made to it make it even more lovely and special! I wish I knew more about Harry Potter so that I could make something for you for next year. I'm going to have to read the books. Well, reread the first one after 15 years, and then read all the others.

    Can't wait to see the house tour!

    Also looking forward to finding out if you made it to Star Wars or not yet or if you've decided for sure to wait a bit longer. I hope it'll be a thrilling, low-anxiety situation for you!

    KW

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    1. Dangit, K, I was hoping no one would mention the sperm drip! >.<

      Also, go read the rest of the Potter series! GO! I'll wait right here.

      The plan for SW is still Wednesday, and I've still managed to avoid all spoilers! On the home stretch!!

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  17. Always love your Christmas trees Jenn... great little upgrades. The cauldrons are so cute.

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  18. Omg wow that is incredibly awesome! ! I may have to copy some of your ideas next year for my tree! I love everything! :-)

    Holli

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  19. We were at my cousin-in-law's for the annual family get-together on Sunday and her whole tree rotates! It's on some kind of base that slowly rotates the entire tree. Of course I immediately tole my husband that *we* have to get a rotating tree base now. But, I also immediately thought of you because I knew you would totally love the idea!

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  20. EEP! To repeat my FB comment, that's my lowly crest on your big ol' blog! So happy to see more of the Harry Potter tree...it is my favorite!!

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  21. Can you please tell me where one can find cute owl ornaments that don't look like bad taxidermy? I'd love to know. I can't find any anywhere. :'(

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  22. I came here after my newly ebay purchased pewter Potter ornaments didn't show up on my tree. I was looking for ideas and found this! I'm so impressed with the quill and parchment ornaments, and the howler, and...and...I just wanted to thank you for posting this. I am officially having a potter tree next year (tabletop size). You're awesome.

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  23. Thank you so much for this! I'm so inspired!

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