When my eldest Fancy Girl was just under a year old, we started a new family tradition of going to a favorite local diner for New Year’s Eve dinner. The diner is one of those nostalgic, 50s decorated places that adds to the appeal of dining there. When we added some festive New Year’s Eve headwear to the evening’s ensemble, shopping for that year’s “hat” became my girls’ favorite assignment for the holiday. This year, rather than buying something quick and easy from a party store, I decided to go the DIY route and make hats for the girls. And I challenged myself to get all supplies from the dollar store. I made out pretty well! Below are some instructions and pictures, all of which was completed for about $7.

Supplies:
– Black poster board paper (other sites recommend scrapbook paper)
– Gold glitter glue
– Loose gold glitter (optional)
– Gold garland
– Gold gift toppers
– Thin black headbands
– Hot glue

Directions:
1. You have to start with a triangle shape cut from the paper. That took a little experimenting to find a size that wasn’t too big for a little kid’s head. I measured a 12″ section of the paper then marked the center of that section (you can fold the paper in order to have a visible guideline). Draw a diagonal from the left corner to the center measuring about 8-9″. Repeat from the right corner. Cut out the triangle shape and cut a curved bottom at the base of your triangle.

2. Using your glitter glue, cover your triangle with circular dots. For added sparkle, sprinkle gold glitter on top of the glitter glue (but that’s completely optional).

3. When the dots are dry(ish), curve your triangle so the sides overlap into a cone shape. Use your hot glue to seal the sides.

4. Attach the garland to the bottom edge of the cone using your hot glue.

5. Glue your gold gift topper to the top of the cone. As in my case, you might have to remove a sticky square or something else that would get in the way of attaching to your hat.

6. Also using a few dots of hot glue, attach the hat to your headband. Don’t push the headband too far into the hat; you want the hat to essentially rest on the headband to make it fit better.

7. Once your hat is dry and sitting comfortably on your head, you’re ready to ring in the new year!

Happy 2014!