Have you been tasked with helping your child to make an Easter Hat for the school or childcare Easter Hat Parade? Whilst crafty mums might be rejoicing, the time-poor mums might be feeling a bit stressed about yet another item on the ‘to do’ list! Fear not. We’re coming to the rescue with easy, affordable ideas for an impressive Easter Hat.
All of these Easter hats are not just gorgeous, they’re cheap and easy to put together. Many start with a hat you probably already own, topped with pretty or fun embellishments that you can pick up at any arts and crafts shop or discount store. Try to create the same look, or use them as inspiration for your own designs.
Easter Hat Ideas: Impressive hats
1. Floral Chic
This pretty hat is easily made from Styrofoam eggs in assorted colours and coordinating coloured ribbon
You’ll need:
- A hat with a wide brim
- Silk flowers
- Styrofoam eggs in assorted colours (you can also buy white styrofoam eggs and paint them) and coordinating ribbon
- Chicks in assorted colour
- Small pink bunnies
- Foam cut-out chicken shapes or similar
- Strong craft glue or a hot glue gun
To make: Attach matching ribbon to each of the foam eggs with glue or a stapler. Place all items randomly over the hat until you are happy with the arrangement (note that the flowers look better when bunched together). Using the glue, attach all of the embellishments, then set the hat aside to dry completely.
Tip If you wish to re-use the hat, attach the embellishments using small safety pins or staples so that you can remove them later. For more ways to get creative with your kids, see At Home With Ali.
2. Carrotastic!
Use real carrots or fake ones! Simple but effective
You’ll need:
- A hat with a brim
- Length of ribbon
- About 35 baby carrots
To make: Trim both ends off the carrots, leaving about 2cm greenery. Tie the ribbon around the hat, knotting it securely at the back (don’t make ribbon band too tight), and letting the ends hang loosely. Push the carrots down behind the ribbon.
3. Do-You-Think-He-Saurus?
Because the eggs and dinosaurs are quite heavy, they will need quite a bit of glue.
You’ll need:
- Old hat with a wide brim
- 1 or more plastic dinosaurs
- Speckled eggs
- Plastic fern and other leaves
- Hot glue gun
To make: Play with all elements over the hat until you are happy with the arrangement. Using the hot glue gun, still everything in place. Note that because the eggs and dinosaurs are quite heavy, they will need quite a bit of glue. Set aside to dry completely.
Tip Buy white styrofoam eggs and paint them. These will attach much more easily and young ones are less likely to want to eat them!
4. Cheeky Chicks
You’ll need:
- A hat with a wide brim (frayed edges are a plus!)
- About 6 chickens and another 6 baby chickens
- Shredded paper
- Round of cardboard to fit the top of the hat
- Easter ribbon
- Craft glue, stapler
To make: Glue a handful of shredded paper to the cardboard circle in a shallow nest shape. Staple or glue baby chickens into the nest. Arrange larger chickens around the brim of hat and staple to secure. Tie Easter ribbon around the hat.
5. The Ears Have It
If you are handy with a sewing machine, sew the fabric onto the ears!
You’ll need:
- A bunny ears headband
- Small piece beautiful fabric or thick wrapping paper
- Small silk or plastic flowers in assorted colours
- Butterfly pin or similar
- Strong craft glue or a hot glue gun
To make: Draw ear shapes onto the fabric or wrapping paper the size of the inner section of the bunny ears and cut out. Using the glue, attach the fabric/paper to the inner ears. Place flowers randomly around the base of the ears until you are happy with the arrangement. Using the glue, attach the flowers. Place butterfly above the flowers on one ear and glue in place. Set ears aside to dry completely.
Tip If you are handy with a sewing machine, you can sew the fabric onto the ears (turning over the cut edge to create a hem), for a neater look. Want to buy it ready-made? Go to Made It.
EASTER EVENT GUIDE: BEST EVENTS IN SYDNEY
6. Reptilian Rapture
To decorate, position the leaves and critters around the base of the ears until you are happy with the placement
You’ll need:
- A bunny ears headband
- Small piece striking fabric or wrapping paper
- Selection of plastic bugs and reptiles
- Silk or plastic leaves
- Craft glue, hot glue gun or a stapler
To make: Draw ear shapes onto the fabric or wrapping paper the size of the inner section of the bunny ears and cut out. Using the glue, attach the fabric/paper to the inner ears. Position the leaves and critters around the base of the ears, and partially up the ears, until you are happy with the placement. Glue or staple all elements in place. Set aside to dry any glue completely.
Tip Want to buy it ready-made? Go to Made It.
7. All Ears
This cardboard classic is a wrapping-paper and feather artwork!
You’ll need:
- Sheet of white cardboard
- Paint in a variety of colours
- Red and white tissue paper,
- 2 feathers
- Plastic craft eyes
- Tape measure
- Black or blue texta
- Ruler
- Strong craft glue, stapler
To make:
- Measure around your child’s head (from forehead to back) to get the hat circumference. Transfer this measurement to the long edge of the cardboard, plus add another 2cm. Draw another line about 20cm above this one and cut along it to create a wide strip.
- Use the remaining cardboard to cut out 2 long ears, a face (the width of the strip), a nose, mouth and 2 teeth (see photo).
- Paint coloured stripes the length of the cardboard strip, then paint the face a single colour, such as pink. Paint the nose black and the mouth red. Set aside to dry.
- Glue the eyes, nose, mouth and teeth in place on the face, then draw on a few freckles. Set aside to dry.
- Glue white tissue paper to the ears and trim to fit. Paint on inner and outer ears. Set aside to dry.
- Cut a rectangle from a few layers of the red tissue paper, pinch the rectangle in the middle, then wrap the middle with a small strip of red tissue and glue to secure. Paint on polkadots. Set aside to dry.
- To assemble, glue face to centre of strip, then staple feathers to top of the face so they fall on either side of the face. Staple ears at the top behind the face. Glue bow on top of feather ends. Overlap short ends of strip by 2cm and glue or staple to secure.
8. Easter Beanie
Easter weather can be unpredictable so stay cosy in this contemporary beanie in complementary colours
You’ll need:
- A beanie
- Magnetic or foam letters to make the word EASTER
- Wool needle
- Wool in a complementary colour to the beanie
To make: Arrange the letters over the front of the beanie. Secure each in place using the needle and wool.
9. Paper Easter hat
Have a little fun with your Easter creation, while also keeping it nice and simple! Grab one of these free, printable templates and let the kids do all the hard work. Set them up with crayons, pencils, glitter and anything else they can make use of and let their imagination soar. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s 100% homemade by your child. What could be better?
You’ll need:
- Download and print a template
- Crayons
- Pencils
- Glitter
- Craft supplies
To make: Make sure you measure it around your child’s head before they get creating, so you know it fits!
10. Origami Easter hat
Do your kids love origami? Or perhaps they’re a fan of all those how-to crafting YouTube videos. This is the Easter hat for them! Simply follow the video and you will create a floral Easter bonnet just waiting to be shown off at that Easter hat parade.
You’ll need:
- Coloured paper
- Plastic plate
- Glue
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Ribbon
To make: Making the flowers can be a little time-consuming. It might be good to split this activity up across a couple of sessions!
EASTER EVENT GUIDE: BEST EVENTS IN SYDNEY
