Map of Hogwarts Diorama

I guess attempting to make a Hogwarts castle over a weekend was poor planning on our part, but here's our attempt!

Hope you enjoy!

Here is everything that we used. Everything is mostly stuff that we had lying around.

1. Box (preferably like the lid of something so the base can cover it!)
2. Glue, scissors, toothpicks, and other pieces of knicknack tools
3. Model magic (any sort of clay, even handmade would work!)
4. Paint, markers, crayons (for some color)
5. Most importantly....your imagination!!!

We first worked on "digging" the lake by putting together the land. These parts are going to be covered up so feel free to use any sort of paper to make a strong base. We used old magazines and newspapers because they tend to be more "soft" and easier to ball up and tacked them using some thick tape. The goal of this stage is to create a good foundation, so it's okay if it looks a bit rough.

We also decided to put Hogwarts hanging into the water a bit on top of rocks so did change the foundation (the first photo) a little bit. Afterwards, we covered this with an old tote bag that had some nice canvas and also put in the "cliff" piece in. This is the foundation that we'll be putting Hogwarts on later.

To make the actual "cliff" we took two flat rocks and binded them together with glue and used some Model Magic to add a "rocky" texture. After it was a bit dry, we went over with a dark brown-brown gradient to bring out the terrain even more and stuck it into our lake.

We finalized all of this and used a mixture of paper mache and glue to make the general landscape. The glue and water mixture (pictured above) is a slurry of tacky glue and water just so that it is easier to apply. Paper mache is nothing fancy either, just a dab of flour and some water.

Our Hogwarts tower combined a lot of the different features incorporated in the many different "Hogwarts castles", such as the number of towers and the appearance of the great hall. We didn't have much time, so unfortunately, we couldn't get to the finer details and create a more elaborate building, but the basics are as follows:

There are 7 towers in the castle (in the first picture) and a Great Hall, for the bars in which are shown in the first picture.

We were really looking closely at some of the reference photos and trying to replicate them, but it soon became obvious that it wasn't going to work, so we scratched out multiple structures, like the bridges and the passageways and stuck with only those two elements in mind. (I'm really sad about that part, but we'll do it justice next time) However, without that expectation, we had more free will and ended making a lot of panels and roofs (textured with toothpicks) sticking them together to make a full-fledged building!

The trees were the most straight-foward (and smooth) part of this entire project and it was simple enough to maybe put in future projects? (we'll see!)

First we made a magic ring with 6 sc (it's a skill, but once you get it it's really not that bad) like the picture above. Then, leaving some weaving space, cut the yarn and pull through. Then using a crochet hook (or a yarn needle if you're feeling patient), weaving into the individual six stitches and then kind of yank until it becomes a ball. The goal here is to kind of make a round and then cinch the top with those six stitches if that makes any sense. Then, knotting in any way you can and try to hide the little end by tucking it into the center (or something). Finally, we put a dot of glue on a halved toothpick and jam it right in (it should be easy from the magic ring). Or it went something like that, but it's pretty small so anything really could go.

We made around 50 of them, but ended up using only like 30 or so and this could definitely be used for other projects (like little pom poms without the fuzz)!

For the Whomping Willow we took some very thin, twine-like yarn and twisted them up to create a tighter spun yarn. Then, we applied the glue-water slurry to stiffen, so it would have a rope-like texture and quality. After it dried we took some Model Magic that we mixed brown into and cut up the twine-rope so we can stick the spokes in and create branches of the willow. For the trunk we used on of those wooden pieces you get for IKEA furniture (like those little wooden bits used to secure stuff in place) and covered it with the model magic and stuck the branches were it felt right.

For the train station, it was Model Magic truly did the magic here We tried working with paper and layered paper at first but, it was taking way too long and it was not as promising as it was in our initial plan, so we switched gears and worked with model magic. Because we made this after the castle, we knew what to do and what to not do, so we made the actual station hollow stuffed with bits of paper and built around that using the toothpick-textured walls and roofs. After we got the building together, we painted using various shades of brown and even added some clock details!

For the quidditch pitch and Hagrid's Hut, we worked with Model Magic again, though we took care to make adjustments to use as minimal Model Magic as possible because we still wanted to use more common materials that could be waste. (we also only had like a fifth of the bag left so...)

We made the quidditch pitch with the different pillars and goalposts and components and assembled them together (after it dried a bit) using tacky glue. Then we colored the fields in with some paint (which we also only had a bit of so we diluted significantly with water lol).

Hagrid's hut is miniscule so we just used some Model Magic to make an approximate house shape and colored the mushroom shaped thing with brown paint. Also, just to honor Buckbeak (Bucky is with Sirius right now), we put in three very very small pumpkins attached to the side of the house!

Honestly, we were out of ideas for this part and we kind of left this for the end...but after a quick search, using toilet paper and glue seemed like the most feasible option, so we ran with it and added some twists of our own. Our base layer (after the paper stuffing) was some nice canvas that had dried from the glue slurry we put on earlier, so we layered on just as recommended over that (with glue slurry) though we were a bit afraid it wasn't going to dry well or un-dry itself. After about 10 layers of very moppy paper, we got into the detailing of the waves and tried to replicate some of the swirliness of the water.

It looked pretty good until we had some (ahm) watercolor accidents with the other stuff we were painting and there was a brown streak right down the middle. Because we have to do some rubbing, we lost a bit of texture, but the colors definitely made up for it and we're pretty excited about how it will turn out. (We also forgot to do a clear coat layer of tacky glue that is drying right now, so we'll update when it dries).

Whew! We hope that wasn't too much, but after we got all of these components together, we started piece together the map.

We drew out and outlined the roads (using the twine from the Whomping Willow) and put in the trees (which is very apparently hard to do in canvas). That was a bit of a hassle, so we secured it in various ways, like with some of the Model Magic for some backing and some paper scraps to try to hold it in place.

We then used the glue slurry to put the station, the castle, the quidditch pitch, Hagrid's house, and the Whomping Willow in place. After some tweaking (and a crocheted wall) our piece (for now) is complete!!!

In reflection, this was such a fun weekend project, though it was a bit cumbersome and diffcult at times. We had to be creative with the stuff that we used to try to maximize our Model Magic that we had leftover and the various everyday household items that we used (a bit too much of). Though with more time, we could have done so much more (add octopuses and merpeople, actual train tracks for the train station, grass), a weekend is honestly a nice carving of time to make something fun and fulfilling.

We hope this was of some use and thank you so much for reading this!