A Hare-brained Idea

Image Via Aunt Peaches

Easter is Around the Corner!

Image Via 013/02/10/how-to-make-an-easter-bonnethat-from-tissue-paper/

In planning the Resurrection Party for the children at St. Mark's I spent a little too much time on Pinterest!  I was looking for fun games to play rather than have the traditional egg hunt when I discovered these very cute tissue paper hats...

Via http://mamareebs-toastandjelly.blogspot.com/2010/04/pti-blog-hop-tissue-paper.html

Perfect for the little girls, but what should we do for the boys?  How about a Mad Hatter top hat?  

Image Via Children's Art.info

So off to search I went.  Everything looked a bit too hard or complicated, or I did not have the materials on hand and did not relish spending an hour going to town to get them, so I put on my thinking hat (pun not intended) and came up with these...

Paper Mache Hats to decorate.

 This tutorial gave me a basic idea of how to create the shape...

Imaga Via Quilters Gems blog

 However...I did not have large enough tag board.  I did, however, have some 8 by 11" card stock and two different sizes of paper plates, so I improvised...

I poked a hole in the smaller 10"plate and cut it eight times from the center to the first ridge.  This will become the brim.  The larger 12"plate's rim was cut from the outside to the second ridge of the rim and will become the top of the hat.

Then I folded down the tabs.

Next I stapled the two pieces of card stock together to make a long rectangle and then stapled those ends together to make a tube for the body of the hat.

Folding the tabs up on the smaller plate, I then stapled the brim to the body of the hat.

The first two I made with duck tape and then ran out of it.  Searching through my studio, I found some old fashioned masking tape (not the blue painters tape which will NOT hold!), which turned out to work much better.

Hint:  Center the top of the hat, hold it in place and use four pieces of tape opposite of each other to hold the top exactly in the center.  Then begin taping down the remaining tabs with horizontal pieces of tape.

Now into the project 2 and a half hours, I have twelve basic shaped hats.

Hmmm, a little shaping the brim would not hurt.

 

Now for the really messy part.  Ordinarily I would do this outside, but the wind is howling, so inside it is. 


Now I cover all the tape and various colors of materials with brown paper bags cut into rectangles and circles.  Dipping the pieces into flour and water, I glue on the covers....

Because the top is larger, you must fold pleats in the bottom to make it fit.

And fold pleats on the top as well, which you will cover with a circle of brown paper.

Three hours to make twelve hats...good thing I am not being paid by the hour!  At least they were cheap!  The boys will add colored tissue, ribbon hat bands and perhaps some painted designs.  We have more than twelve little boys, so am thinking a few newspaper cowboy hats as well.  Hopefully they will take a lot less time to make!

And oh, by the way, I did find some fabulous games!  What a hare-brained idea to make Mad Hatter top hats!  Should have just stuck with the games.  Off now to clean paper mache off every surface of my kitchen.