In this instructable we will look at a varaity of ways to make homemade Harry Potter paraphernalia for costumes, play, partys, or just for fun.

To start we will go over some basic and easy projects that you can do with materials found around the house.

(Oh and stay tuned- we will routinly add projects to this instructable or make sequels)

Step 1: Mauraders Map

In this project we will look at different ways to achieve the "Appearing Marauders’ Map" effect. There are a number of ways to do this but I like to keep it as simple as possible so I did it in these three ways.

I got the info on what would work as inks and how to reveal them from this site
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/invisibleink2.htm

1. "The Potions Reveal" Personally I have found this to be one of the easiest ways of doing the marauders’ map because all you need to do is draw a map on paper in a half baking soda half water mix and then pour "Revealo Potion" over it (Grape Juice)

2. "Wand Reveal" This has got to be one of my favorite ways of doing this because the effect is the closest to that in the books and movies. Essentially what you do is get a basic invisible ink set (I got mine on Ebay) and make sure it is one of those that has a light to show the ink, and then draw the map with the pen included in the set and wire up the light from the set into either a homemade wand (I usually use the paper wand method when doing this to make running the wires up the wand easier) or any other hollow wand you might have. You may also be able to do this method using some tonic water and a black light if you can find one small enough to fit in your wand or can incorporate the larger light somehow into the harry potter theme.

3. "Heat Reveal" This method is very similar to the wand reveal method but it is a little bit cheaper if you happen to have the right materials laying around. Essentially the idea is that you are going to use heat instead of light to reveal the marauders’ map. I have not actually tried this method yet but in theory I would find a small but powerful light bulb that was small enough to fit in the tip of my wand and wire it up though my wand then draw with vinegar a basic marauders’ map and reveal it. Personally I have not done this yet due mostly to lack of time but also because this is not really the best method because I imagine that if you are using heat to reveal the marauders’ map it will be burning the fibers in the paper which would mean that it would stay revealed. Good for secret notes and perhaps other magical means but not the best for this particular purpose.

Step 2: Howler

In this step we will go over how to make an easy but realistic howler for about ten bucks.

First off the idea here is that we are using a recordable greeting card to send our voices in a howler. I have found that this is a remarkably simple way to get a very "true to the movie" effect.

(Sorry about not having any pictures I intend to add some later if my camera starts working or I get a new one)

So essentially what you are going to need is a study standard envelope and a recordable greeting card. First, paint the envelope red. Then take apart the greeting card and glue it into the envelope so that when you open the envelope it starts talking. Just glue it in using the same principal used to make it work when the greeting card is opened just makes it so it talks when the envelope is open. Then record a seething message and use a sticker to close the envelope. You now have a real Howler!

Also if this method is too pricy or you want a howler more for looks than function then you may want to just paint an envelope red or instead of a recordable greeting card module just stick some sort of noisemaker in there so it scares or annoys the opener.