Conjuring a castle and creating clever classes is craftier than Crouch's camouflage. Boom, alliteration in your face. The success in the Harry Potter series must surely have something to do with the detail which Queen JK created in the magical world of Hogwarts. I endeavoured to craft as many magical moments as possible for my guests by filling the room with items of magical properties and re-create some of the classrooms at Hogwarts. But I ain't made of money so I did this primarily by crafting with items I purchased from the $2 Shop. Read on for some bargain Hogwarts decorations.

Owlery: Hedwig and friends

I found this idea for creating an owlery on the interweb, where all the best ideas come from. I purchased a bag of white balloons ($3.00) and used my own air to fill them ($free). I then drew a variety of owl faces with permanent marker ($existing) and tied a piece of curling ribbon ($existing) to the balloon and secured it to a shelf. Repeat as many times as you like. It was good fun coming up with different eyes and expression for the owls. If you want to spend a bit more and are more organised go to a party shop and purchased helium filled balloons so that the owls can actually float in the air. You could probably get a few different colours like grey, white, brown and black. If you want to go all out purchase foil owl balloons or a bunch o' hedwigs. I also found some lenticular owl bookmarks at a $2 Shop so I grabbed them too, random right?!

Hogwarts Stairwell: Portraits

The halls at Hogwarts are filled with magical portraits that are able to talk and move around from picture to picture. In the movie the two portraits that made the largest impression on me were the Fat Lady (Dawn French) and the portraits of past Headmasters of Hogwarts - the sleeping Dumbledore following his *spoiler alert* death.

To create my Hogwarts portraits I rescued two very cheap gold frames from my parents house ($free) - you could easily find something similar at a $2 Shop or Op shop. I then scoured the internet until I found the right images from the movies and printed them to size ($free). If you have cash you could purchase a Fat Lady door cling. Unfortunately neither of these options will make the images move for you. If you are so inclined you could purchase some lenticular prints or find a digital photo frame and figure something out. But I think option A is probably the best.

Forbidden Forest: Dead Unicorn

Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure and defenceless to save yourself, you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.

Do not fear, an actual unicorn did not die in the making of this craft... As this was an adult party I thought a dead unicorn would 'liven' up the party. I purchased a unicorn (not to scale) from a $2 Shop and used my hot glue gun and some silver paint to match the movie version. I've not found an off-the-shelf dead unicorn...strange. Looks like DIY dead unicorn is the only option if you want to go all Forbidden Forest.

Professor Snape's Potions Class

Snape is the mean/hot Potions Master at Hogwarts. And with his mad potions skills you know your party potions have to be on point. I purchased small glass bottles with cork lids in a variety of sizes ($15). I sourced/stole some printable potions labels on the interweb and stuck them to the bottles with PVA. My basic liquid base was 50% water and 50% glycerine. pro-tip: the glycerine makes the water thick and move slowly. I sealed each bottle with hot glue to look like wax. NOTE that the liquid will seep through the cork so keep these bad boys upright.

Veritaserum - liquid base with gold craft flakes from the $2 Shop
Draught of Living Death - liquid base with purple food colouring with black tulle
Pepperup Potion - liquid base with orange food colouring and three small pink pompoms
Unicorn blood - silver paint
Skele-gro - liquid base with white paint and dacron/polyester wadding
Mermaid Tears - liquid base with assorted hologram glitters
Felix Felicis - liquid base with orange food colouring and gold craft flakes
Gillyweed - liquid base with green food colouring and thin strips of green stretched felt
Memories - liquid base with blue food colouring and silver paint. Do not mix the paint through.
House Juice - liquid base with straight up coloured glitter

Professor Trelawney's Divination Class

Divination - the dodgy class. March birthday party equals Christmas sales equals dodgy divination props. I found a purple bauble that was perfect for creating a crystal ball. I was so proud of myself. I used a battery operated tealight candle and got creative with cardboard and a hot glue gun. I made myself a glowing crystal ball for under $5. Then browsing Arthur Daley's I found a NEAR IDENTICAL CRYSTAL BALL. I say near identical cause it was actually much better and was only a few dollars. There is also this replica for a few dollars more.

I also grabbed a packet of Dragon Blood incense (surprisingly easy to find) and a wooden incense burner (with gold stars). They also sold some thick rimmed, round glasses. I was inspired to try and create Professor Trelawney's distinct glasses by fusing together a sheet of magnifying plastic - the kind they make for old people to read books - with and aforementioned thick glasses. The glasses and plastic cost about $5 total and looked average but funny. Well, I thought they looked funny. I also wanted to grab a teacup and saucer to use for reading tealeaves but I just ran out of time. Next time I will make sure I can read the tea-leaves. It's an important part of any Divination lesson.

Professor Umbridge's Office

My attempt at creating Professor Umbridge's office was quite half-arsed in its preparation but amazing in it's execution. All I had intended to do was print pictures of cat plates and stick them on the wall. But when I arrived the perfect location revealed itself in the form of my mother's display cabinet full of pink stuff. It was a match made in heaven. To quote one party guest "I couldn't tell where [your] mums stuff stops and the decorations begin". I just found these plate images by Googling and then printed them onto plain paper and blue tacked to my mum's china. There are other internet options that include mounting cat pictures to Op Shop plates which I would probably try next time around.

Professor Flitwick's Charms Class

Ok, I didn't decorate a Charms class but I did pay for all the guests to attend Charms class at the Little Shop of Horrors Costumery and we used our wands throughout the day. Mainly for pointing at things but just as effective.

The Sword of Godric Gryffindor

I had too much fun making this magical object come to life. The real luck was finding a great sword at my local $2 Shop. Then all I needed was red and silver glitter and PVA glue and the sword of Godric Gryffindor was created. Or you could buy this one for $349.99, your choice.