Hogwarts Shield: My DIY Process

For our 'Very Harry Party,' the main feature of the Great Hall (aka our Dining Room) was a Hogwarts crest shield. I wanted this to be a good size, so it looked proportionate to the mantle.

Hogwarts Crest

For this project, as with the many signs and large scale props at the party, I used insulation foam as the substrate. Insulation foam is lightweight, easy to cut, and inexpensive. A 4' x 8' sheet will cost around $12 -$25 depending on where you buy it and the thickness of the foam.

For the party signage, I bought a total of (2) sheets of foam and made every single indoor sign AND the Bertie Botts display out of the two sheets of foam, a single quart of primer and misc paint colors.

Foam Cutting Tools for Craft Projects: 

Box Cutter: If you use a thin sheet of foam, a boxcutter can work to make cuts.
As most people have this tool already, it can save you from buying extra tools for a project.  HOWEVER, please note that when you cut with a boxcutter, the edges can be jagged and not smooth.   It will also be much more difficult to work complex angles (ex. the curvature around this shield). If you want a more finished edge, are cutting out details (ex. the Bertie Botts display opening), or are using a thicker foam, you will want to buy...

Foam Cutter: This tool is heated and essentially cuts by melting your incisions into the foam. You will need to fine-tune your heat settings so that it is hot enough to cut smoothly, but not so hot that it melts too much of the foam as you are cutting. It will leave a smoother finished edge than blades, and much easier to cut around curves, tight corners and thicker material.

Hot Knife Tool: I used this tool to carve out the negative space on the shield.

* When using any foam cutting tools that utilize heat, please be aware that these are essentially melting the foam, which will release a strong chemical odor. Always work in a well-ventilated area and I would highly recommend wearing a face mask when working with these tools.

Hogwarts Crest Process:

I began by sketching the crest onto the sheet of foam. I just utilized a photo of the crest and free-hand drew it onto the foam.

* When sketching on foam, be careful to sketch very lightly, as any pressure will etch into the surface of the foam. 

Once my sketch was acceptable, I traced over the drawing with my pencil pressing hard enough to etch into the surface, to make the drawing imprint into the foam.

I then cut out the overall shield shape from the sheet of foam.

Unfortunately I do not have any photos of this early process. I powered through these initial steps one evening while watching a movie and enjoying a glass of wine. 😋

After the overall shield was cut out, I used the Hot Knife Tool to etch the design into the surface of the foam. I had to fiddle with the heat setting quite a bit to get the heat setting 'just right.' In some areas the tool was getting too hot and etched more deeply and wider than I would have liked, especially with the eagle wing details which I ended up simplifying to avoid ruining altogether. It was a little finicky. But I knew that it would be painted and hung high enough that the details wouldn't really matter.

Foam cut & design etched into the surface.

If I were to do this again, I'd be really interested in playing with adding wax or clay to build up the animals more, to give it a more three dimensional feel. But I was relatively happy with the end result.

Next up, I gave it a full coat of primer.

Then I painted it with a 'gunmetal metallic' craft paint and added some antique wax to make the features stand out better.

Metallic Paint Coat

BUT... then I realized that, though it looked pretty good when laying down on a table (as above), it was really hard to see the details when hung upright. The metallic sheen and dark color made it look really flat.

SO... I then bought a faux stone spray paint and gave a light coat of stone finish over the shield and reapplied the antique wax to the details.

Final shield hung above the mantel.

I apologize for the poor lighting on the shield in the photo above. Our power was out during the party (a strong storm the night before had taken down a lot of power lines), so the windows were our only source of light.