DIY Mad Hatter Table Decor

After being away for 2 1/2 weeks visiting family, the sudden realization that my girls' birthday party is only a few weeks away has hit me like a brick! I feel so far behind in getting everything ready!! We're doing an Alice in Wonderland themed party... however I am trying to steer away from the blue and pink pastel versions you've seen, so I'm still defining the whole look. My other challenge is I'm trying to stay under a certain budget. I don't want to give away too much, but one thing I do know I want to do, is "represent" the different characters on the food table. here's the first one I've finished–the Mad Hatter's hat I made for ONLY $4! It's all smoke and mirrors when you're on a budget. Here's what I used and did.

Materials:
- Party hat purchased at the Dollar Tree ($1)
- 3 foam sheets in light green (.99 each)
- 1 foam sheet in dark green, approx 18" x 3 1/2" (I had this but otherwise it would be $.99)
- stapler, glue dots, tape, black marker (no cost--all on hand)
- Manilla envelope (no cost, had on hand, but otherwise probably not more than $.50)

1) You're probably thinking "that hat doesn't look like the Mad Hatter's hat." Rip out the small insert from the top of the hat, and rip off the bottom rim of the hat. Then, flip the body of the hat over... look better? This will become the foundation for your hat.
2) Here is where the smoke and mirrors come in. Take one light green foam sheet and wrap it around the hat. Secure it in place with a stapler at the bottom. It will come into a V shape, helping to give you the shape of the Mad Hatter's hat in the front as shown below.

3) Cut a 12" x 12" square from another piece of light green foam sheet. Using the small insert you pulled out from the top of the hat, use that as a template to cut a hole in the middle. Make sure to cute off the "teeth" or little tabs around the circle, if they came out with it. Then use scissors to round out the corners of the green square.

4) Secure in place with strong scotch tape as shown below. Scotch tape is not the ideal adhesion to use on foam, but in this one small case it should hold up. Turn it right side up and add your dark green band around the bottom of the hat. Secure it to the back with a stapler.

5) Here is the tricky part. Flip the hat over on top of your third light green foam sheet. Trace the top of the hat, estimating the rest of the top. Then, draw a second circle around that. You are going to cut out little "teeth" or tabs, as shown below.

6) Then tuck the tabs into the hat. What you do next is up to you. Since this will be set on the food table, once I attached the top of the hat, it looked pretty good, even on the sides, so I cut off the unused tabs and just left the back open. You can use your remaining scraps to cover the rest of the back if you want.

Don't forget the final touch. Cut a rectangle from the manilla envelope and write the 10/6 on it with a black marker. Tuck it into the band. I'll be using this to display food in cups so I may leave the hat rim flat. But you might want to play around with the rim, bending it, so it's not so flat. Stay tuned for more DIY projects for the party!

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