A crafty mum has transformed a 20-year-old Christmas tree into an incredible Harry Potter masterpiece - and it looks simply magical.
Louise Howard, 37, and her family create a different “themed” Christmas tree every year as part of their festive traditions.
Last year, the family created a Grinch themed tree - but this year it was the turn of the beloved JK Rowling wizarding series.
Louise, a mum-of-three who works in a children’s hospital, reckons the entire Harry Potter project cost her under £100 in total.
To keep costs down as much as possible, she managed to buy accessories from B&M, The Range and Amazon and also printed out her own decorations.
The total cost came to £92, not including a Hogwarts Express train that came to £65 and was a last-minute addition.
Louise told LatestDeals.co.uk “I have three girls aged three, 12 and 20, and we all love Harry Potter. My husband Adam humours my crazy ideas.
“Last year, we decided to do a themed tree each year so we did the Grinch, which we all loved. I run a party and balloon business in Bristol so I have lots of craft bits on hand.
"I also work in the children’s hospital and do our department tree every year - last year I did Toy Story at work.
"Our tree is actually 20 years old. I purchased it for my daughter's first Christmas - and she is 21 next month.
"I’ve used it every year. I would never change it until I really have to. It was from Woolworths and has been through three house moves.”
The first purchase for the Harry Potter tree was a Sorting Hat from Amazon to go on the top, along with some floating candles, which came to £38 in total for everything.
Next, Louise visited both B&M and Home Bargains to see what Harry Potter things they had.
She managed to find some gold and burgundy Gryffindor theme colour baubles in B&M, and a Harry Potter writing set from The Range.
Other bits Louise purchased online include gold poinsettias from Amazon and little glass bottles with lids, which the children filled with different colour creams to look like potions.
The most expensive part of the project was a Hogwarts Express, which cost £65 on Amazon.
Have you saved money by making your own Christmas decorations? Let us know in the comments below.
Most of the other decorations were then bits the money-savvy mum either had at home already or made from her craft supplies.
Louise said: “We had nothing except a Dobby mask we’ve had for about 10 years from a World Book Day costume and a pillowcase we used for his dress. We’ve used this and dressed up an old Santa we had to make a Dobby.
"I thought about other things that related to Harry Potter: an owl and stag, letters, a broom, a Golden snitch and so on, and I started to source them.
"I printed some Harry Potter-themed clip art from Google onto sticker paper and cut them out and stuck them to the baubles. I also printed some templates for chocolate frog boxes online and made them up.
“Then I made some Ferrero Rochers into golden snitches - this could be done much cheaper with gold baubles though. We used the Ferrero Rocher box to stick a Platform 9 and 3/4 sign to.
“I also got some acorns which were collected from a local park and sprayed gold with a £1 spray. We had lots of these so again it filled a lot of space.
"I sold all of the Grinch baubles, the Grinch body and Cyndi Lou pigtails from last year for profit so that funded this year's tree."
Tom Church, co-founder of the money-saving Black Friday app, said: “Many of us have wished we could partake in the Christmas feast at Hogwarts, and Louise’s amazing tree certainly looks like it belongs in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
“I love how clever Louise has been about keeping costs down for her tree, even making a profit off last year’s Grinch decorations.
“She’s provided so many great ideas for creating a stunning but wallet-friendly tree, this is making me think about doing a themed tree next year.”
