How to Make a Wand with Little Kids – ADORABLE Fairy Prince & Princess Versions

If you’re looking for a fun DIY project to do with your kids, why not make something that will last? These DIY fairy prince and princess wands were a big hit at our house.

Some of the steps in this project are too difficult for little hands – and we sure don’t want them messing around with hot glue! However, there’s absolutely nothing DIFFICULT about it, so it can be a lot of fun to do together.

Here is how to make a wand with little kids that will be a perfect addition to your next Halloween costume, or your every day dress-up box!

How to Make a Wand – Supplies Needed

Here’s what you need to get started. Everything can be found in your current craft supplies or at your local big box craft store.

• a dowel rod or sturdy stick from your yard
• ribbon – although washi tape or patterned Duck tape would be cute, too
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• a star template (provided below)
• scissors
• stiff felt – glitter is a fun choice!
• curly ribbon
• decorating doo-dads, like rhinestones, beads, stickers, pom poms, or whatever else you have on hand

Hint: If you’re wondering how to make a wand that looks more Harry Potterish, I love this one by Ruffles and Rain Boots.

If you’re wondering how to make a wand for your kids’ dress-up box, you gotta start with the right size wand. Here we are choosing the perfect size dowel rod for our magic wands. In the end, we selected one that was the right width, and then cut it in half. It was way too long, but just perfect otherwise. Ours only cost $.69.

Our craft store had TONS of ribbon, of course. It’s really cute to have either a patterned ribbon or a patterned stiff felt. It looks best to keep the other a solid so your wand doesn’t look too crazy. But then again, kids love crazy.

If you’re wondering how to make a wand without a trip to the store, another option (which would cut down on the amount of hot glue) would be to use washi tape or Duck tape over a backyard stick. That would create a more streamlined look since the adhesive is built in.

One part my kids loved was choosing the right stiff felt for their star. I showed them how to coordinate the felt with their ribbon.

My son chose an outer space ribbon and matched it to a cobalt blue star. My daughter’s favorite color is purple, so she picked a purple felt and mermaid scale ribbon.

I liked choosing a solid color for the star, because you’re going to be adding decorative doo-dads to it. If you’ve got a patterned background on the star, it will look REALLY busy. But who knows?! Maybe busy is your kid’s jam!

Next, we picked out a curly ribbon. If you’ve got a bunch of ribbon in your wrapping paper supplies, you can always curl it yourself! But these were only $.99, and my kids thought it was fun to choose their own color.

PS – Check out pencil shaving art for kids if you want a craft project that is zero-prep and no need to buy supplies 🙂

Step 1: Wrap your magic wand in the ribbon.

Put a strip of hot glue down the width of your ribbon to attach one end. Keep the rest of the ribbon on the spool.

Next, move the wand on a 45 degree angle (pictured below) so that it can be wrapped. There will be a fold at the top, but you can add a dab of hot glue to close it nicely when you’re done.

As you twist the wand and wrap it in ribbon, add another strip of hot glue every 3 inches or so, and wrap tightly to keep it secure.

When you reach the end of the wand, cut your ribbon, and apply another strip of hot glue to attach.

Note: I am NOT a perfectionist. You may have a tidier way to do this, but a bunch of hot glue never bothered me much!

Step 2: Create your star.

Use the template provided below to cut two stars from your stiff felt. This will create a front and back to your star. I rushed a bit and my stars didn’t match perfectly. If you tape it down, you might get a better finish!

Stars-Template

Step 3: Attach the star to the wand.

Using what?

You guessed it! Hot glue!

I attached the star to each side.

When I finished, I added a dab of glue to each of the 5 points, to close the gaps.

Finally, I trimmed the star (pictured below) so that they were identical, because the back of the felt was showing through on each side. This step might not be necessary if you are a perfectionist when cutting your stars and make them match exactly.

Step 4: Let the kids decorate their stars.

This is the best part for the kids, because they get to be creative! We got out all our crafty doo-dads, from puffy balls to googly eyes and rhinestones. My son insisted on putting googly eyes on the back of his, and who am I to get in his way?!

Since I don’t let them handle hot glue, they each pointed to where they wanted each doo-dad placed on the star. This gives them creative control over their project without hurting themselves.

Step 5: Attach the curly ribbon to the magic wands.

Each kid picked out a curly ribbon to match their wand. I stuck a dab of hot glue on each one in the middle of the ribbon, and then tied them together when it dried.

Step 6: Play Time!

Here’s the best part! Big sister taught baby brother how to say, “Bibbiti bobbity boo!”

She would say, “You’re going to be an elephant, okay!?” And when she waved her magic wand and said the magic words, he turned himself into an elephant. Great fun!

It will be even better if we get to use these in their Halloween costumes, but they are getting plenty of use already.

I hope you enjoyed this DIY wand tutorial – fairy prince and princess edition!