Make 1,000 Lovely Things: Flower Party Hats How To

For those of you who requested a how to on the fiesta party hats, here you go:

You’ll need:
Crepe paper flowers (we got ours at Fantastico!)
Wire cutters
A hot glue gun and glue sticks
Lingerie elastic for the headbands

This is how the flowers come, pre-muss.

First, I turned them inside out for maximum fullness. You have to do this gently, stretching each layer as much as possible without tearing it. Then I clipped out the center stamens with a pair of wire cutters and turned the flower right side out again.

Now it’s time to glue one side of the petals down to create a larger flower that looks more like a rose than a trumpet flower.You’re about to glue the first layer of tissue down, but avoid gluing down the raw edge of outermost tissue shown in the photo above. You’ll want to hide that edge, and if you glue it to the stem, it will be visible in the end result. Instead glue at least three fingers width away from that edge.

(Bam! Color change. I am blowing your mind right now with the magic of the Internet.)
Anyway, once you have your spot, put a little hotglue on the stem about two inches away from the base of the flower,

and pat the first layer of tissue into place.

Repeat with the next two or three layers of tissue, gluing each to the “stem” through the layers of tissue that are already tacked down. Your dots of glue will get a little closer to the center with each layer.

Your end result will look like a lopsided flower before you put it on, but this shape follows the curve of the head in an attractive way.

Now for the headband. I just measured by pulling it around my head and making sure there was some tension to the elastic so it would have to stretch a bit for the girls to put their hats on. That worked fine, and the photo above shows you about how long it is.

Once you’ve cut a piece of elastic to size, glue the ends together with a half-inch stripe of hot glue.Now glue the flower base onto the point where the elastic is joined, so you can hide that ridge. Use your wire cutters to snip off the excess wire on the flower stem, and voila!

The hat can be worn four different ways, so it’s perfect for folks who are irritated by party hats or don’t like to muss their hair. My favorite way to wear it is as a headband:

Then you can use it as a proper hat:

Wear it around your neck or wear it as a wrist corsage:

Hooray! You are so extra- fancy right now.