I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter my entire life. That magical world of teen wizards and witches fighting the dark arts totally captivated my attention. It was really exciting. And one of the many things that Harry Potter found exciting was quidditch! Flying around on brooms playing sports was so fun.
In the books, Harry Potter gets a state of the art Firebolt Broom from his godfather, Sirius. So…I decided to make it from cardboard, tape, and glue. Follow the steps below to make your own broom!
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Steps:
Print out the “side view” template and tape together.
Cut out the template.
Trace onto long corrugated cardboard so you have 5-6 layers. If you do not have long pieces of cardboard, cut out in smaller pieces and stagger them so the seams are not all in the same position. The video shows how I did it.
Cut out all of the corrugated cardboard and use white glue to glue the layers on top of each other.
Scrape the bottom of the broom with a knife so the sides are less boxy.
Wrap the entire handle in masking tape. Try to keep it as smooth as possible.
Tape twisted/crumpled pieces of scrap paper to the bottom of the handle. This is the grayish deadwood part of the handle.
If there’s any tape that isn’t laying flat, carefully slice with a knife and push down so it lays flat. You might need to paint the brown part brown so you can see the bumps more easily.
Roll pieces of corrugated cardboard at the bottom of the handle to help bulk up where the “twigs” will be glued.
For the “twigs” cut thin strips from cereal boxes. You will need a lot of them.
Take a handful of the strips, put some masking tape in the center, fold in half, and glue onto the bottom of the broom.
Glue a lot of cardboard strips around the broom, covering up all of the corrugated cardboard. Use the template to make sure the seams will be hidden by the “metal straps”.
Trim the end of the thin strips where they’re next to the handle. You want them to be the same length to look nice and neat.
Spray paint in brown.
For the straps, wrap strips of cereal box cardboard around the broom in the same spots as the template.
Add some thin decorative elements to these straps so they don’t look flat.
Cut out footrests from corrugated cardboard and place off to the side.
Paint the broom handle in brown craft paint mixed with red craft paint.
Paint the bumpy deadwood part of the broom in white craft paint mixed with a little black and brown craft paint.
Paint the straps and footrests in black craft paint.
Paint the straps and footrests in metallic silver craft paint.
Optional: paint the “twigs” in watered down black paint to make it a darker brown.
Use the “top view” template to help with the placement of the symbols. Trace symbols onto the brown broom handle so they leave small indents.
Paint these indents with black craft paint and then gold craft paint.
