Momma Much

We’re having Brielle’s Birthday party at a “place” this year: Bare walls, long tables, a HUGE play area, and lots of screaming happy four-year-olds. Sounds good to me! But because it’s not “home” I want to add a personal touch.

I had the idea of making homemade party hats. I checked Pinterest and was discouraged to see that everything required a hat pattern printout. I don’t have a printer. And an actual pattern seemed like overkill. There had to be an easier way!

So I went through a closet and YAY! I found a stack of dollar store party hats. I took one apart and had my instant “pattern.”

Then I got the kids busy painting with watercolors. Because watercolors are just so BRIGHT and beautiful.
 
I tried to keep the paints in themes that made sense together, so purple and pink together or blue and dark blue. But it got pretty messy at the end so we have lots of unique hats which is fun!

After the painting was done I chose the ones that could be salvaged (aka didn’t have holes in them from paintbrush over-love) and used a coat of water and blended the paint in long streaks. Then set them out to dry!

(We used this paper from Target. It’s Heavyweight so I hoped it would stand up to the process and it did beautifully!)

After the paintings were dry it was time to cut them using my trusty dollar-tree hat guide.

I’m showing two pictures, one tracing the BACK of the painting and the other I literally just cut around the hat with my scissors. Either method works and both are equally easy. The only part that requires any brain power is making sure the closure parts match up. So there is a”tab” on one side and a “slit” on the other. That has to be right in order to close properly. OR you can just forget those altogether and just use TAPE. Which might be what I end up doing with the TWENTY more I have to do before her party.

Now I just have to get thin elastic string for the chin strap and attach. I’m just going to use an exacto knife to cut little slits for the string! So easy.

When I saw the end result I almost cried. Even the texture and feel of them is amazing. When Brenden came in and saw one on Brielle’s little head he was like “WOW.”

They are so beautiful and unique. I’m excited! They are exactly what I needed for her party.

You can even make little mini ones! CUUUTE.