Sunday School Craft - Wise Men "Follow the Star" Crown

Okay. . .let's be honest here. . .

The MOST IMPORTANT reason for little kids to do crafts is so that adults can be equally as entertained.

This is one such craft!

You need: metallic bulletin board boarder strips (15pk at Dollar Tree), tree tinsel garland (10yds at Dollar Tree), star ornaments (6pk at Dollar Tree), pipe cleaners, paper, stapler, and a glue stick.

You can also improvise with whatever you can find. For instance, you don't need the garland. You could use construction paper to make the crown. And you could just cut out stars to hang. Anyways, this post should at least give you some ideas. The main thing is to make a crown and attach a star with a pipe cleaner for the child to "follow."

The first step is to cut the garland to the length of the boarder (This one is 18").

Then, cut out the verses in the template I've provided at the end of this post.

Then, staple the boarder onto the bottom of each boarder. (I used four staples per.)

Then, staple the pipe cleaner in two places from the back. (I also turned up the "tail" of the pipe cleaner to make sure it wouldn't pull out easily, but I didn't take a picture of that step.)

Next, glue the verse to the front of the crown.

Then, take a star ornament off the card and pull off the twisty-tie.

Insert the pipe cleaner through the top hole of the star. . .

And bend that tip down.

Final step: staple the back of the crown together in two places so it makes a hat!

My head is too big, but you get the idea. . .

Cute! Can you imagine a bunch of little kids running around with these on their heads at your church??? 

Adults will lose their ever-lovin' minds!

The End!

Elephant Man Hat and Cowl

Sometimes, when you are a maker of things, you get asked to make the weirdest stuff at the strangest times. I wasn't planning on blogging today, but when I woke up to my sister's calling and asking me to make her an Elephant Man hat and cowl for a play she and her husband are directing. . .I realized I would be blogging today after all. . .Yes, Sister, you let me stay at your house for a year rent-free. . .I guess I can make you an Elephant Man hat. . .

This is the original one that is in some museum somewhere. Until this morning, I had no idea what it even was! I mean, I knew he wore a thing over his face, but I didn't know there was a specific hat. Learn something new every day. . .

Here is another view:

Here is mine:

I went to Goodwill, but I couldn't find any brown velvet, so I bought a pair of brown tweed pants. I used a pillow case for the cowl.

I used the lining of the pants as the lining in the hat.

If you look at the original again, you will see it has some kind of ribbon around the bottom half. Well, obviously, I didn't have that either, so I just sewed around and around the bottom half with white thread. I think it gives it a rustic feel and it at least alludes to the orginal.

If you look closely, you can see that I put a bit of thread down the middle of the eye hole. Having done theatre myself, I know how much an actor needs to see on stage, so I cut the eye hole bigger than the original. To keep the hole from gaping open, I tied a bit of thread down the middle of it.

A close up of the eye hole.

The End.