Magic Wands! (08/10/2012)

Another day, another fun (hopefully!) post ... but today's project is NOT a card.  Nary any paper in sight, and no stamping ... it is a passel of magic wands!  Let's check them out:

Before you get all excited, and think that TWO isn't a passel..., just you wait!

My better half is in a local production of "The Changeling" that is being performed at our county fair.  It is an original production about the changeling boy and his journey reclaiming his belief in fairy tales.  The writer and director wrote in several parts in the script for children in the audience to "wave their magic wands" to help Puck fly and to help strengthen spells.  The troop will perform the show five different times during the fair run, so they, ah-hem, asked for TWO-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY wands!  So, I got cracking!

After several attempts at designs, and ways to adhere the toppers to the wand sticks (lots o' discussions and ideas on wand sticks too!), I settled on black chip board stars and hearts for the toppers, and pre-cut packaged dowels for the wand sticks.

Because the director wanted this interactive, I had to design the wands so that the children could "build" their own wand as well, as the play was getting underway.  More prototypes and designs later, and thanks to several friends - especially Terri - who gave incredible advice, I decided to die cut the toppers and adhere curling ribbon streamers with hot glue.  I also decided to wrap the wand stick dowels with curling ribbon too.  And, obtained some silver and gold glittery sprays.  I also used 3D pop dots to adhere the ribboned topper to the ribboned dowel.  The idea was for the kids to choose their topper shape (heart or star), with one of three color choices (red/purple, blue/green, or orange/yellow), and then choose their wand stick color (red, purple, blue, green, orange or yellow) and then decide if they wanted some glittery "fairy dust" in either silver or gold.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been die cutting stars and hearts; cutting, tieing and gluing ribbon streamers to the toppers; and wrapping wand stick dowels.  Plus, the first performance was on the Main Stage, and we had to have 50 pre-made wands to hand out at this venue due to the other events scheduled on the stage.  Again, had to get crack-a-lackin' to get this all done ahead of time :)

Here is a pile o' wands that were pre-made for the Main Stage performance:

Here is our table, where the magic happened during the other shows:

To prepare for the plays with the interactive-wand-creation, I separated out each shape and color for the toppers, into 6 large baggies.  The wand sticks were separated out by color as well (you can't see all six of them, but they are there!).  Kids approached the table, chose their shape and color combo, then their stick color (stuck them together with the 3D glue dots) and what color fairy dust glittery spray.  It went really well, and was pretty easy to do. 

However, the prep was where it all paid off.  I spent countless hours wrapping each dowel with the curling ribbon, cutting the topper shapes, and adhering curling ribbon streamers to each topper.  Here is how I covered the dowels in curling ribbon:

I laid down some hot glue at the end of the dowel, to anchor my ribbon and hold it tight while I wrapped the entire dowel.  Start with lots of glue!

Then, start wrapping.

As I neared the end of the wand stick, I added more hot glue to finish off and hold the curling ribbon.

I also realized that it worked best to keep wrapping the ribbon over the top of the ribbon at the end, and kinda work backwards a few wraps.  I added a drop of glue at the very end of the ribbon too, to hold it all together:

Here is one happy little girl, with TWO wands!

And, a happy big girl:

And some happy boys:

All in all, I think the wands were a hit, and really helped The Changeling come to life!  And, the wands were really fun to prep.  But the best part was to see the big and little kids enjoying their wands and waving them to help make Puck fly!

Thanks for stopping by, have a magical day!

Chris