Did you know that yesterday was “Make a Hat Day“? Yup, that’s actually a thing. Not that it’s a holiday I typically celebrate but it just so happened that I decided to make a paper hat this week for Riply’s 1st Birthday. So, I figured it would be the perfect time to do a post about DIY Paper Party Hats! I love a good reason to craft up a party.
Being the baker and crafter that I am, I of course had to make the most of my puppy turning 1-year old this week. Besides baking a pupcake for her, I also made her a little party hat to wear. Riply was surprisingly a good sport about it, though clearly not as thrilled as I was 😊.
I think making your own party hat is such a fun way to customize a party! It is certainly more time intensive than buying some, but they are also fairly simple to make. This tutorial will show you how to make basic party hats with just paper, tape, and string. For decoration, I’ll also show you how to make simple tissue paper pom poms and fringe!
PARTY HAT THROWBACK
Creating this tutorial reminded me of the first DIY paper party hats I made a few years ago. It was for a friend’s Finding Nemo birthday party. She was turning 28 but she’s a Leap Year baby so we threw her a “Happy 7th Birthday” party 😝 Aren’t these hats adorable? I promise the paper hats we’re making below are not this involved!
MATERIALS FOR DIY PAPER PARTY HATS
- DIY Paper Party Hat Template – You can download a blank template here. Links to fun patterned templates are at the end of this post!
- Paper Cardstock – in your chose of colors and patterns!
- Scissors & Xacto Knife (if you have one!)
- String/Ribbon/Elastic Cord
That’s it! Quick note: the OMC DIY paper party hats template is sized for smaller hats. If you want slightly larger ones, print the templates out at 112% and it will still fit on a 8.5″x11″ piece of paper.
CONSTRUCTING THE PAPER HATS
This DIY Paper Party Hats template doesn’t require any tape or glue. Just make sure you follow the template and cut along all of the black lines. You should be left with a tab on one side and a slot for the tab to fit into on the other. It’s easiest to cut that slot if you have an xacto knife or even box cutter. If you don’t have one, you can use a pin or something sharp to poke a hole on the line and then use your scissors to cut through.
You of course can just say whatever to the whole tab concept and use glue or tape if you’d like 😉.
If you have a hole punch, you can easily create two holes at the bottom of each hat to tie your string or elastic cord. I for some reason can’t find my hole punch so I used my xacto knife to cut an “X” shaped hole. Attach your string and you have yourself a party hat!
Now of course, the fun part is really decorating the hats. There are a TON of ways you can deck them out. You can make DIY pom poms out of yarn to top the hats, or kick some flower crown butt and adorn these party hats with florals. Since this started out as me wanting to make a hat for my dog, I wanted to use what materials I already had at home…and I have plenty of tissue paper.
DIY TISSUE PAPER POM POMS
You will need:
- Tissue Paper
- String
- Scissors
- Tape
To help hold the pom pom at the top, you can wrap a small piece of tape around the tip of the hat. This will make sure the string doesn’t fall through!
Fringe It Out
To step up the DIY Paper Party Hats game, you can also add some tissue paper fringe along the bottom of the hats. Again, super easy and all you need is:
- Tissue Paper
- Scissors
- Stapler
- Tape
- Cut strips of tissue paper and staple them on top of each other. More layers equals more fringe!
- Cut fringe along one side of the strips. On the other side, make a few cuts an inch apart. This allows the strip to fold around the hat.
- Glue the tissue paper strip along the inside of the hat. The fridge edge should stick out on the bottom.
Now you’ve got yourself some fun party hats!
(Remember the tissue paper corners you cut off to make the pom poms? Realized they can be repurposed for confetti 😜.)
Hope you enjoyed this DIY Paper Party Hats tutorial! As an added bonus, I created some fun, custom paper hat templates to share. Hope they can provide a little inspiration for your next party! Click on the links below to download.
Downloadable DIY Paper Party Hats Template
If you make your own party hats, please share them with me! I would love to see your creativity at work.
