Hello Hogwarts.

Not long ago I woke up with the desire to forge myself a Hogwarts acceptance letter. (I think I had a dream where you needed one to get into an exclusive Harry Potter Event.) Flash forward to the day before my brothers birthday and I haven't gotten him a gift, so I decide to create him a letter. Of course, it's too late for him to attend Hogwarts because he was turning thirteen, but still.
I started my project by googling for tutorials, but I couldn't find one that I liked, so I thought I would make a tutorial fitted to my preferences and then if you would like to make a Hogwarts letter too you could. The things you need vary based on preference, but here's what I used:

• A copy of The Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Two pieces of card stock
• An envelope
• A lighter
• A purple crayon
• A green sharpie
• A computer
• A printer
• A letter H stamper
• Tape 

Like I said, I couldn't find any tutorials that I liked, so I ended up just typing it up from the book, and I found images of McGonagall's signature and the pretty swirly thing. If you want a typed copy of the pages, leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it to you.

All above photos are of The Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling

I don't have any before pictures, but after I printed my letter out, I roughly followed this tutorial for the oven method for making it look like old parchment. I used card stock paper, but I think the tutorial is for normal paper. Here's a simple version:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Get out two cookie sheets. Fill one with coffee. (You can use tea for this too, however I tried that first and I didn't like it as much- it stains lighter than the coffee.)

3. Place your paper in the coffee, and make sure it's fully covered. Carefully flip paper over to evenly cover both sides.

4. Move paper to other cookie sheet and bake until dry. (I didn't leave any of my papers in the oven long enough so before I put them in the envelope I blow-dried them a little.)

Next, I addressed my envelope. Since I wasn't actually going to send it in the mail, I put on mine 'The Room at the Back of the House' because my brother's room is, well, at the back of the house.

As you can see, the, uh, 'seal' didn't work out so well. We basically melted a crayon on it and then stamped in with a letter H stamper that I already owned (and we ended up having to tape it shut... *sheepish grin*). Ironically it worked better on the practice envelope than it did on the actual envelope.
I'm not sure if the envelope will have still stuck shut after it was soaked in coffee; I didn't try it, but the tutorial that I linked to above said it doesn't. Anyway, do this in whatever way you see fit and I wish you luck. (In the book it's the Hogwarts coat of arms: an eagle, a badger, a snake and a lion surrounding the letter H. Unfortunately I didn't have that. Adding it to my wishlist.)

And there you have it! Your very own Hogwarts letter (which was amazingly fun to make, I might add).

Have you read any of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling?

-Ashley