Paper Hats tutorial

These Mad Hatter hats were easy to make and supper fun to use. What I really like about these is how versatile they are.  There’s no template required, just a dinner plate and three sheets of 12x12 cardstock.  Sounds very techincal I know.  You can dress them up or dress them down whatever fits the occasion. 




Materials needed



First you’ll need the following:

3 pieces of 12x12 cardstock (if you’re going to make the mad hatter version you will need an extra piece of cardstock for the trim)

Scissors

Glue dots (large ½ inch)

Double sided tape

Dinner plate and ruler (both not pictured)

Step1

First cut the cardstock you want to use for the hat top in half.  To find the middle of the paper I just fold the paper in half and then cut along the crease. 

 


Step 2 Glue dots!

Next it’s time for glue dots.  If you don’t have glue dots you can easily use double stick tape.  Glue dots are stronger than tape and work very well with cardstock that has raised patterns on it or a slick surface.  Attach one end of the cardstock using glue dots or tape.  This will give you a very long rectangular piece, about 22-23”. 



Step 3

To determine the size for the hat, wrap the top hat piece around your child’s head and mark with a pencil where the two end pieces overlap.  Then apply more glue dots near the pencil mark and attach the ends together. 



Step 4

Now you should have a cylinder that fits the size of your child’s (or adults) head.  We're halfway there.



Step 5

Take the most uneven side of your cylinder and cut 1 inch slits about an inch apart all the way around. 



Step 6

Then flip it over and apply double stick tape to the top of each section.  The tape should be on the colored side of the cardstock. 



Step 7

Now it’s time to make the brim of the hat. Take a dinner plate and trace it onto the blank side of your cardstock. Then take the already assembled top hat and trace the cylinder onto the inside of your dinner plate circle. I know this sounds really technical, but it gets even better. Cut out the doughnut shape you have created and voila it's the hat brim. I used this piece as a template to cut out the rest of my brims.






Step 8

Then all you have to do is plop the brim on top of the sections with double stick tape and press firmly. 



Step 9

You could very easily stop here if you like but I wanted the bottom to have color as well so I created another brim/doughnut for the bottom to cover up the mess.  Yay! We are done.  If you would like to make a Mad Hatter hat than continue on with my Mad Hatter hat tutorial.