Ollivander’s Wand Box

At my daughter’s Harry Potter birthday party, we sent the children on a quest to find Ollivander’s wands. At the end of the treasure hunt, they opened Harry’s trunk to find the wands I’d made for them, which were inside boxes stamped with the Ollivander’s logo. Chalk it up to the fact that I worked as a packaging designer many moons ago, but I couldn’t have imagined presenting the wands in anything but the Ollivander’s signature wand box. The children went wild when they found them. I guess their reaction proves the power of branding and packaging, even in the wizarding world!

Materials

Cricut
black railroad board
silver heat transfer vinyl foil
extra long cutting mat
Cricut scoring tool
weeding tool
iron
fabric of your choice (I used black cotton)
1/2″ foam
glue gun
fabric shears

Wand Box

Step one is to download the wand box top and bottom and then upload them to your Design Space. Insert the box top file into a new canvas and select all twelve objects in the first layer to change them from cut to score. The second layer contains the cut lines, which are already set to cut by default. Select all of your lines and click the attach button on the lower righthand side of the screen.

Place a sheet of railroad board on your extra long cutting mat and load it into the machine. Load the scoring tool and begin cutting. Repeat these steps for the bottom of the box.

Logo

Now that we have our wand box material cut out, it’s time to create the Ollivander’s logo. Upload the logo file to Design Space and save it as a “Print Then Cut” file. Insert the logo artwork into a blank canvas and change the fill option at the top of the page to “no fill.” Next, load your heat transfer foil onto your cutting mat with the glossy side face down. Click the “Make It” button and make sure that you click the mirror button on the next page.

Drumroll, please. We have reached the most tedious part of the entire process. Use your weeding tool to carefully remove the excess vinyl around the logo. If you move too quickly, the tool will slip, and you will scratch the vinyl inside the letters. I found that I had the most success with removing the negative space inside the letters before removing the vinyl around their edges.

Center the logo over the middle of the box top with the glossy side facing up. Turn the dial on your iron to the cotton setting and apply firm pressure to the vinyl. This step works best if you work on a hard surface, such as the floor. Check the directions on your heat transfer vinyl to get an idea of how long you should heat it. Keep in mind that because you are applying the foil to paper, you will probably need to reduce the timing quite a bit. The trick is to apply enough heat to get the logo to stick to the box, but not so much that the foil begins to blister. It’s best to check the foil frequently (as in every couple of seconds) to avoid an epic disaster.

Cushion

Cut a piece of foam that measures 14.5″ X 2.75″. Next, cut a piece of fabric that is 16 X 8. To create a crisp edge, fold one of the long edges over 1/2″ and iron the fold. You can totally skip this step (no judgment here!), but it definitely makes the cushion look neater.

We’re basically going to wrap the foam like a present. Begin by centering the foam on the fabric. Glue one of the long sides to the foam. Then pull the opposite side with the folded edge taunt, and fold it over so that it overlaps the first edge. Fold the sides in toward the middle and glue the tail to the bottom of the cushion.

Know When to Fold ‘Em

Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel? The last step is to fold the box that we cut in the first step. Begin by folding up one of the short sides of the box top. Next, add a little hot glue to the tabs on either side of this panel and attach them to the adjacent panels. Repeat on the opposite side of the box. Next, fold and glue the four remaining sides. Repeat these steps for the bottom of the box. Finally, use a glue stick to adhere a serial number to one of the short sides of the lid.