DIY Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Train Tutorial

I made this really awesome Hogwarts Express train as a decoration for Halloween. It is really fun. It can even double as a hideout if you go behind it! There are windows made from paper, and you can put a face in it or whatever you want. In one of my windows I put a ghost. If you wanted then it wouldn’t even have to be the Hogwarts Express or a Halloween decoration. You could make it just be a train for playing with.

What You Need for Making the Hogwarts Express:

• Four pieces of paper
• About five Perler beads
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun
• Sharpies
• Red paint
• Paintbrush
• Small stick
• Cardboard
• Scissors

How to Make it:

1. Take your cardboard box and cut it so that is is flat and makes a long rectangle. Then cut it so that it has the front part, cutting out a smaller rectangle. Keep this rectangle. You will use it for the wheels. Then you can use a Sharpie and draw where you want the windows and wheels to be. The wheels can be any size, but the windows should be about the size of half a sheet of 8 by 11 paper. Now get your red paint and your paintbrush and paint the train! Don’t paint over the outlines of the wheels and the windows, but it’s okay if you get a little bit on it. Then let it dry.
2.  Now cut out wheels that fit the outlines you drew. Using a Sharpie, draw a small circle inside each of the cardboard wheels. Now cut the sheets of paper in half, one half for each window. Cut one extra half and set it aside for the ghost later. Take your hot glue gun and hot glue the wheels and the window pieces over their outlines. Let the glue harden.
3. Next color one of your windows black with a Sharpie. Then cut a shape of a ghost from the last half sheet of paper. Draw a face on it and then hot glue it to the black window. Using one of the scraps from the piece of paper, make a speech bubble and write a Harry Potter spell such as Accio in it. Then hot glue it above the ghost. Now get the small stick. This will be the ghost’s wand. Hot glue it onto the ghost or near the ghost. Then using another scrap, cut out a lightning bolt and color it yellow. Hot glue it right above the wand so it looks like the ghost is casting a spell. Now using one more scrap of paper, hot glue the Perler beads on top of it. The Perler beads will be little candies. Then hot glue the piece of paper with the Perler beads on it above the lightning bolt. Ta da! You’re done!