This how-to post for DIY wizard wands is simple enough for any Harry Potter obsessed Muggle to follow. Turn ordinary pencils into magical writing tools with little effort!
A few years back, I had a Hogwarts themed classroom and planned to gift each of my students their very own magical wizarding wand. I wanted it to be functional and practical while also being cute. I’m not a fan of cute unless it serves a purpose and so I ended up making my own wands out of standard pencils.
This actually solved the inevitable problem of missing pencils. Seriously, where do all the pencils go after October? Anyway, kids valued their pencil wands so much that it wasn’t until well after winter break I needed to distribute more. Score!
This blog post lays out how to make your own magical wands. I’m no expert here, and so you’ll find little anecdotes on what worked and what didn’t along way. Let’s begin:
Supplies Needed
- Wooden pencils, unsharpened (this is important!)
- Acrylic paint (I chose matte browns and metallics)
- Glue gun and hot glue sticks
- Cardboard box (I chose one of many Amazon packages showing up here)
- Scissors and/or box cutter
- Paintbrush(es)
- Time: multiple days (2-3 recommended)
Prepping Your Materials
STEP ONE: Prep your cardboard box. Remember: I am an amateur here. I took one of the hundred Amazon boxes being delivered to the house and with a closed pair of scissors stabbed the Box with tiny holes. The holes were to hold the pencils upright while the hot glue and paint dried. Stabbing the box works just fine, but if you’re not feeling very savage I guess you could use a box cutter to create little Xs and then work the pencils into that space. Whatever works!
STEP TWO: Using the hot glue gun, I made different patterns at the top of my unsharpened pencils. I only used the gun to design the upper third of each pencil so that students still had plenty of surface area to grip and sharpen the pencils. I made sure not to cover the metal piece (ferrule for you word nerds) or eraser with any sort of glue Again: these were to be practical wands and even the best of wizards make mistakes!
Making the Wands
STEP THREE: Once the hot glue dries, you can go ahead and paint your pencils. Here we go with another amateur hour. Because this was my first time doing a project like this, I used a paintbrush to literally paint every little crevice and glue portion of the wands. My thinking was that I wanted all of these different colors and shades of brown to give the pencil wands a more authentic look of grainy wood. That was a complete waste of time if I’m being totally honest. Eventually, I got smart and skipped this step. You do you, though.
STEP FOUR: To paint the entire pencil, I got acrylic paint bottles that were fairly deep/tall so that I could dunk/dip the entire pencil into the paint bottle. Holding the pencil at the eraser end, I would dip each pencil into the jar, letting the excess drip back into the bottle. I then put the pencil into my nifty cardboard container, eraser side down. Any excess paint still left on the pencil would drip towards the cardboard box and collect there. This is when you might need a paintbrush to help cover the rest of your wand.
Mischief Managed!
And there you have it! I loved how they came out. Students obsessed as much as I did. We had a magical year. Will do it again. Even if you’re not doing a Hogwarts themed classroom, this project is simple enough to spark a little joy for your students. You can find other wizard inspired resources in my TpT store.
ACTIONABLE STEPS: Try this project out and let me know how it goes! Have improvements for this how-to on DIY wizard wands? Share below to help future witches and wizards.
