lesson

Have you heard of or made Tissue Paper Hats? They are such an easy, adorable craft for a tea party, dress up or just because! This idea came to me thanks to an object lesson given by a speaker at the Family Conference from our old church. I wasn’t a part of the kid’s class this was used in though. He gave the finished hat to one of the kids and when I saw it, I fell in love. I knew I would be making this with some sweet girls in the future!

The original idea looked like these:

A simple piece of tissue paper formed around a head-sized bowl, carefully taped around the base with masking tape as you slightly gather, and rounded off to form the brim. I first made these at a Tea Party for my Awana girl’s in 5th and 6th grade.(Notice the drop in picture quality from just 6 or 7 years ago!)

And these:

The Fancy Nancy 5th birthday party of my favorite 6 year old.

Then, Monday this sweet girl’s mom phoned me saying her little girl had a special request of me. She’s been reading “Ferdinand the Bull” for school and needed to make a hat as a project. Of course she wanted to incorporate the flowers from the story into the hat, right up my alley!!!

She spruced up the whole idea by picking out PATTERNED paper, 3 of them!!! LOVE!! And I brought fun, birthday tape and felt flowers I cut from clearance placemats I KNEW I would be able to use for SOMETHING!! In fact, that’s how I justified buying them in FOUR different colors, and less than a month later, I used some!!! These additions made the hat so much more FABULOUS!! Thank you 6 year old!!

SO ADORABLE!!

The gathers really made the layers “pop” making it more fun and whimsical!

We also took the scraps of tissue paper, tied knots in the middle and poked them through the centers of the flowers to create the pollen knob and a stem for easier taping with double sided tape. (Double sided is better for 2 reasons: it’s much stickier, and well, it’s double sided, sticking to both the stem or flower/butterfly AND the “tape band”). Taping it to the tape band allows for mistakes and replacing, as the tissue tears VERY easily.

LOVE the layers! They add weight and durability also, making them sturdier and less likely to fall off with movement and teeny breezes caused by walking and turning the head.

Kids ALWAYS come up with something creative and unique, even for photos!!