In a little less than two weeks it’ll be my cousin’s bat mitzvah. We’re flying down to Los Angeles to celebrate with her, and part of this celebration will be done in themed attire. A lot of kids her age do a big dance with all their friends and all their parents friends, and S. is no different. However, instead of dressing up in semi-formal attire, she decided to have everyone come in pajamas and jerseys. Since I’m not sure that people who are out of high school should be wearing pajamas to a party like that (walking a fine line between being too sexy and too childish), I decided to wear a jersey. But let’s face it, I’m not one for team sports. I support the Yankees (my grandfather being a New Yorker), but don’t watch the games with any regularity and I haven’t played a team sport since middle school.

With all this in mind, I wanted to go in something a little more fun. So being a huge nerd, I bought a great Harry Potter inspired quidditch jersey, and I’ll be showing you a couple DIYs I’m doing to finish my outfit.

First up are these golden snitch earrings. These would really be perfect for any occasion–let’s be honest–but are great for this time of year since Halloween is right around the corner.

These turned out even better than I thought they would. They look great, and I love the way they move. This is a really simple DIY, and there’s lots of opportunity to get them to look exactly the way you want them before anything is finalized.

You’ll need:

• gold sculpey
• dangling earring findings
• flat bottomed pins
• pliers
• craft glue (optional)
• something to give the wings texture–I used a dime

First you’ll need to take a small amount of clay and make two spheres as close in size as you can.

Gently push these balls down the pin until they’re resting at the bottom.

Take an even smaller bit of clay and roll it into a snake about the length you want the wings to be. Squish this with your finger and add texture with the tool of your choice. Then you can use a needle or something to shape them the way you want. I really liked using a dime for this because of the added texture, but you can use a needle or pin or toothpick or clay tool–whatever you have on hand.

Carefully take the wings and attach them to the back of the ball, smoothing down the clay.

Bake at 275F for about twenty minutes, depending on the size of your snitches.

When the clay has cooled, thread your dangling earring attachment thing onto the metal rod. Take your pliers about halfway down the exposed metal wire and bend so that the end of the wire goes through the hole. You can dab some glue on the end for more stability, but mine didn’t need it. You could also twist the wire into place. Before you finalize the earring, make sure everything is facing the right way and looks the way you want it.

And there you have it: snitch earrings.

If you played a position on a Hogwarts house quidditch team, which position would you play?