How to Make Paper Hats

Kids love to have someone make a fuss over them, especially when their birthdays roll around. Ice cream and cake and lots of presents are always on the list for birthday musts. Add to that a birthday party filled with friends, family, decorations and paper hats and you'll have one happy birthday girl! When you want to plan a special day to celebrate your child's birthday you don't have to dip into their college fund to foot the bill. Get creative and make as many of the decorations as you can. Start with the paper hats that all of the guests will wear to show their unity in celebration of the birthday person. Make paper hats for each child in attendance and get ready for adorable photo opportunities once they are all wearing them.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Card stock
• Scissors
• Elastic
• Stickers
• Stapler

What's the Color Scheme?

1. Hold off on making the hats until you have made a decision on the color scheme for the party. Once you've determined which colors will dominate the day you will be ready to make decisions about the paper party hats.

2. Buy the paper. You'll need a heavier weight card stock if you want the paper hats to withstand the wear and tear your young guests will likely inflict upon them. The card-making aisle of the craft store is the place to look for card stock. You can usually find packaged card stock in almost any color. You'll need one sheet of card stock for each hat you intend to make. It is also a good idea to make a few extra hats for unexpected guests.

3. Grab a roll of thin, thread style elastic while you are at the craft store. This will be used to keep the hats on all of those little heads at the party. It will be attached to both sides of the hat and will secure the hat under the chin of the person wearing it.

4. Pick up a package of decorative stickers to use as decorations on your paper hats.

5. Use scrap paper to practice with until you perfect your template. Start by cutting a half circle from the paper. Make the half circle as large as you can while keeping the dimensions at a half of a circle. Bring the edges of the half circle together to form a cone and secure them with a staple or two in the back. Experiment with the size of the circle and the regularity of the circle (in other words, stray from a perfect shape and let the edges become less round or more angled) to vary the shape of the cone.

6. Choose a template from your practice hats and cut the number you will need from the card stock. Form the cones and secure with the staples. Use a hole punch to make a hole on both sides of the bottom edge of the cones. Tie a strip of elastic to each cone to form chin straps to your paper hats.

Tips & Warnings

• To add an activity during the birthday party, leave the paper hats undecorated and let the kids decorate them instead.