“Rabbit Magic” and DIY Magician’s Hat and Wand

“Rabbit Magic” and DIY Magician’s Hat and Wand

This book is a book that is filled with fun.  The illustrations are filled with adorable bunnies and fantastic expressions all drawn-up in attractive colors.  The story itself is pretty great too.  It is about a rabbit who is a magicians assistant and is very good at what he does and is very happy.  However, one day he gets ahold of the magicians wand and with it all the “power”.  He gets a little carried away with being the boss until eventually he learns that sometimes it is better to work as a team.

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DIY Magicians hat and Wand

After reading this book it seemed only fitting that we make a “Beyond the Book” DIY magicians hat and wand.  After all, after reading a book about magicians, don’t you ever want to be one?  This hat and wand are perfect for imaginative play.  You can help your kiddos re-inact the book or they can do their own story.  Either way they are bound to have a lot of fun.  Plus, this project is super easy and takes very few supplies.

Magicians Hat

1. You only need four supplies for this craft: scissors, clear packing tape, a white colored pencil and a black posterboard
2. First you need to make a circle that will fit your child’s head.  You can measure their head with measuring tape or use one of their current hats.  I used a hat from my toddler to find the diameter of the circle I needed then traced a small pot lid I had with the same diameter.  I used a white colored pencil so I could see my lines easier.  This creates the “opening circle” for your hat.
3. After I did my  “opening circle” I found another pot lid in my kitchen that was large enough to give me the length of rim I wanted around my hat and traced it with the “opening circle” in the center.
4. Next I drew some intersecting diameter lines across my “opening circle” and cut them with scissors to create the triangular-tabbed opening that you see in the photo.  This completes the rim of your hat.
5. Now you need to make the top piece of your hat.  To do this simply trace the same circle that you used for your “opening circle”.  They need to be the same size.  Then draw some of your own triangular tabs along the circumference.  You can make them neat and tidy or just free-hand it like I did.  All you really need are tabs to attach later.
6. Cut it out around your tabs and the outside lines and your top is ready.
7. For the sides of your hat all you need to do is cut a long rectangle that is the same length of the circumference of your “opening circle” and is the width that you want your height to be.  Then the middle piece is ready.
8. Now you are ready to connect all the pieces together.  Connect the rim to the side/rectangle by folding up all your rectangular tabs and then taping them to your side/rectangle as you wrap it around the “opening circle”.  The photo above is looking down into the hat after the tabs have been taped.
9. The last step is to place the top on your hat.  Fold in your triangle tabs on your top pice and place them inside the rim of side/rectangle that you just adhered.  Tape them on the inside of your hat to secure the top.  Now your done!

Magicians Wand

1. This wand is vastly more simple than the hat.  For supplies all you need are: a wooden dowel (mine here is 7/16″ in diameter and 14″ long), black and white nontoxic acrylic paint, painters tape, and a paintbrush.
2. Tape of the ends of your dowel to cover the end sections that you want to be white in the end.
3.  Then paint the whole middle section of your dowel black.  I did a couple of coats of paint.
4. After the paint is completely dry, remove the tape on the ends and now wrap tape around the edge of the unpainted tips to keep your white paint from crossing over on the black.
5. Now paint both ends of your dowel white.
6. Afterwards you may want to coat with a clear nontoxic paint to seal everything and make a nice and smooth exterior.

Now you are done and ready to create some magic of your own.  We love this set so much and my little guy looks so cute all dressed up as a magician that it got me thinking, wouldn’t this make the best halloween costume?  I know, I know, that is FOREVER away.  However, I really think it would…

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.