Paper-Mache Easter Bonnets

April 08, 2014

When I was a little girl, my mom used to let me pick out a brand new Easter outfit every year, and they almost always came with hats. I still remember how fancy it felt to go to Easter dinner with my new frilly bonnet on, the elastic tucked firmly under my chin.

Kids' clothiers don't really do Easter hats as much anymore as they did when I was small, so I thought it would be fun to make DIY Easter bonnets with Anne, inspired by our tissue paper bowl craft from last year (which I'm also planning on using to make A.'s Easter basket this year). The technique is similar, with only a few tweaks, and the results are pretty fun and surprisingly wearable.

You'll need: balloons, a large bowl, tissue paper in at least two colors, Elmer's glue, a paintbrush, and trimmings (if you want them).

Here's how to do it: Blow up the balloon until it's roughly the same circumference as your child's head. Place the balloon in the bowl, knotted side down, so that it stands up on its own.

Place a sheet of tissue paper over the balloon (this will be the innermost layer of your hat). You can cover the balloon in Saran-Wrap to make removal easier later (we didn't and it still came off pretty easily). With the paintbrush, cover the top half of the tissue that touches the balloon with watered down glue until you have the basic hat shape (you'll want to leave a good-sized "brim" untouched).

Place another layer of tissue on top of the first layer, and cover with glue. Repeat this step until you have your desired thickness (we used four sheets of tissue per bonnet, varying colors by layer).

Wait a few hours. When the top of the bonnet is dry and hard to the touch, pop the balloon and peel it gently away from the tissue. Fold back/fluff the brim of the bonnet to show all of the colors underneath. Trim with all kinds of festive decorations! We used tissue paper flowers, pom-poms, and crepe paper for ribbon.