My daughters go to an awesome school that hosts a Day of the Dead festival every year. One of the fun activity stations at this event is a sombreros de papel/ paper hats station where you get to have a Calavera Catrina style paper hat tailor made for you.
Calavera Catrinas are dapper skeletons festooned with very fancy hats. The first Calavera Catrina was depicted by the Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada in the 1910s and has become an iconic symbol associated with Día de los Muertos.
I’ve always wanted to know how to make these paper hats because they are fun, fabulous and a great DIY activity for parties. I mean they are great for Day of the Dead, but can’t you see them working for a child’s tea party as well?
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Turns out that the hats are super easy to make. Press play on the video below to see what I mean.
Day of the Dead Paper Hats
Supplies:
-
- Masking tape
- White craft paper cut into large rectangular sheets
- Tissue paper in various colors
- Paper flowers (you can make them yourself with the tissue paper)
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Directions:
To form the crown of the hat, place a very large piece of rectangular white craft paper over your subject’s head, mold the paper around their head and then use a long strip of masking tape to tape around the white craft paper so that it keeps the shape of the crown you’ve created. (See the video if this doesn’t make sense.)
Then place three to four sheets of slightly fanned out colored tissue paper right over the taped craft paper on your subject’s head, mold it into the same crown shape and tape it off the same way you taped off the craft paper.
Remove the whole paper creation from your subject’s head and place it on a flat surface. Start rolling the craft paper in on itself to shape the brim of the hat. Keep the brim wide, but make sure that as you roll inward, you roll the ends of the tissue paper into the craft paper so it all stays together. (See video for example.)
Attach paper flowers to the masking tape band on the hat using a sticky-side-out rolled piece of masking tape.
Wear your hat with pride and celebrate life!
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Those are awesome!