For those of you celebrating Christmas the clock is swiftly counting down to the big day, but even so you might feel that you could do with getting a little more in the festive spirit, or perhaps that for some reason you can’t quite put your finger on, this year you’re sure your tree doesn’t look as good as other years. Maybe, contrary to both of those things, you are bursting with Christmassy excitement and dying to fit in one last festive craft project before Christmas truly arrives. Well, either way, I’ve got you covered. Why? Because it’s time, my little wizards, for us to learn how to make Golden Snitch Baubles.
Magical tree is magical
The great news is that it’s super easy and also inexpensive, and it would also make for a great last minute gift idea for your Harry Potter loving friend who already has all the merch you can think of.
What you’ll need:
- Small gold baubles
- Small slim white feathers (I used white Goose feathers)
- Silver paint or silver spray paint (and possibly gold paint, read below before deciding)
- Scissors
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Newspaper or a craft table cloth
What you’ll need
I got my baubles and silver spraypaint from Poundland for £1 each, my feathers from eBay for £2.48 for 100, and I got my glue gun from Hobbycraft forever ago for £5. Of course, if you can get your hands on feathers that are already silver that takes out a couple of steps for you right from the start. I only made 7 Snitches so they could be feature baubles on our tree (and, you know, because 7 is the most magically powerful number) but I had plenty of supplies left over to pass on to my sister so she could get her Potter loving children making as well.
Fun fact: In Danish translations, the Golden Snitch is called Det Gyldne Lyn, which means The Golden Lightning.
These baubles are very simple versions of the Golden Snitch, compared to the movie version which features engravings and embossments on the golden body of the snitch. If you wish to get that intricate with your Snitches you can use your glue gun to make fine lines of decoration on the snitch before you attach the wings, but doing so will mean you also have to buy gold paint to paint over the glue lines so that they match the golden bauble.
Step by Step guide:
- Pick out your feathers to create similarly sized pairs for the number of Snitches you’d like to make.
- Cut the feathers to create a more angular wing-like shape.
Cutting the feathers into wings
- Lay down newspaper in a well ventilated area and spray paint your feathers on both sides, leaving them to dry carefully so they don’t get stuck to the newspaper or have their colour rubbed off on the side facing down. (I propped mine against the prominent crease of the paper, but you could also stick the ends into blobs of Blu Tack or polystyrene blocks.)
Paint the wings silver
- Mark where you want your wings to sit on either side of the bauble with a small dot by pen.
- Cut the feathers to be shorter if they’re too long for the proportions of your chosen baubles.
- Using your glue gun carefully, pipe glue onto one of your dot markings and insert the hard quill end of the feather into the glue. Hold in place until the glue sets.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Set your Golden Snitch aside carefully to dry.
- If you’ve used a noticeable amount of glue to attach the wings, you can cover the glue with gold paint if needed. Mine weren’t noticeable when hung on the tree so I didn’t bother.
And there we have it! Your tree can now be witchy and Snitchy, something I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of Christmases already. If you don’t have time to fit in making these before Christmas you can keep an eye out in the January sales for the golden baubles needed to make them for next year, as all decorations will be on sale super cheap once Christmas is over.
Do you have any holiday decorations, handmade or otherwise, that rep your favourite fandom(s)? I’d love to hear about your festive fandom features in the comments 🙂
Miss Amy May 