Hogwarts At Christmas!/Plain Old HP Swap GALLERY

I sent my package out about a week ago, and Bebopchan received on November 9th. She said she doesn't have batteries to take pictures, so I figured I'd just post the ones I have of what I sent her.

I had no idea what I was going to make at first, but then I remembered a hollow wooden book I'd seen at Michael's a few weeks back. I decided to turn that into a book from Hogwarts. I thought some Hogwarts-style stationary would go nicely in there. I had to look around online for ideas for the third item in the swap. I saw that someone had made ribbon barretts in house colours, so I planned to do the same. I needed one big swap item (the book) and two smaller ones (the stationary and the barretts), so I was set.

I went to Michael's, Jo-Ann's, and AC Moore for supplies. My first stop was Michael's, where I bought the hollow book, the paint, and the cards for the stationary. The stationary is actually a little larger than an average postcard, and I love the colour washes. The material isn't as thick as card stock, but it's pretty close to that. I got gold letter stickers too, for the front of the book.

At Jo-Ann's, my sister found the red vinal. It was on sale with the Halloween stuff; who knows what costume you could make with that stuff. I found gold ribbon to put around the stationary as well as some shiny ribbon that had both gold and red and would be perfect for the barretts. I didn't end up going with the barretts idea though. The barretts were just too wide for the ribbon, and I liked the headband better.

Our last stop was AC Moore, where I FINALLY found stamps to make the stationary. I'd wanted to have an owl and stars, but I couldn't find either at the other two stores... well, I found stars, but not Harry Potter-esque stars. I struck gold at AC Moore. I found a couple owls I liked, stars... and a stamp with mail on it. I decided to go with the more sophisticated owl, (the other was more simple, really cute, and a bit cartoony), and the letters. I figured those were the perfect stamps for owl posts.

Here's the headband:

Pretty much, I wrapped the ribbon around this headband. It was pretty simple, but it's cute.

Here's the owl post stationary:

This little packet will go inside the hollow book, once it dries.

And now for the book:

The letters stuck well, look Harry Potter-ish (at least to me), and pop out well against the red.

Here's what the sides look like:

I used red paint where there were gaps.

Aaaand here's what it looks like inside: