Oh nooooo.. Easter bonnets.. groan...

[SleepyJess]

I imagine this get's 'done' every Easter on here.. but I am new since then' and can't be arsed to search.. too knackered.. sorry.. so please humour me and tell me what the hell to construct for DD to wear on her head next Monday! Sigh. Last years effort was a paper crown with Mini Eggs and fluffy chicks stuck to it.. completely unoriginal and boring and crap compared to most of the amazing creations on display on the heads of the rest of DD's infants school, as they paraded the playground.

Please help someone.. would be ever so grateful for ideas.. or better still, specific instructions!

SJ x

We're working on ours, using a plan I found online ... can't find it right now, but it involves a brim made out of one piece of paper, and then strips of paper doing the crown. We're sticking pompoms, stickers, fluffly chicks, and fake hair (don't ask) to it.

There are a lot of good plans online for these things, if you're crafty.

Can't you gte away with a doily stuck on a paper plate any more?

1st year (DS 2)- made a Rabbit boater sort of hat with a brim. Brim was green grass (crepe paper), crown was covered in scrunched up brown crepe paper with a round rabbit head & ears stuck on the front & cotton wool ball tail. Took ages - DS refused to wear it!
Last year (DS 3) - made Thunderbird style hat from yellow card. Round chicken head on front, yellow beak, yellow feathers on rear for a tail. Won 1st prize!
This year I asked DS (now 4) what kind of hat he wanted & he came up with a crocodile . I'm trying to get him to have a rabbit style Thunderbird hat !! Stick with what you know !

How about this one? easter bonnet

Oooh that ones nice Humphrey... although it looks fairly complicated for someone like me! Thanks for all the ideas so far. I hadn't abandoned the thread.. just didn't want to kill it be saying thanks.. as I'd love the input to continue for a bit so I can choose the most do-able-by-me option and adapt it as necessary. I am actually quite creative with certain things.. (can paint, draw etc) but total crap at constructing crafty imaginative creations!

I bought some new fluffy chicks yesterday (and I think last years are still somewhere).. and some orange crepe paper. And asked DH to come back today with coloured pipe cleaners and mini eggs.. but not really sure what I want to do with them.. maybe I dreamt of something involving coloured pipe cleaners and now can't remember it! But had a feeling earlier that I definitely needed some! (Perhaps I just want to twist them up.. worry bead style.. and it's therapy that I actually need! )

I have to make something soon though.

I got them in a local newsagents. They seem to have them in flat boxes near the till.. about 20p each

I've got similar problems. Nursery are holding Easter bonnet parade and my little boy's not even 2. Talk about early pressure!
Type "easter bonnet, cbbc" into google and you can actually print out instructions for a very fetching and sophisticated hat.
As it's my first year, I'm going to dig out an old straw hat and decorate it. They can jolly well wait till next year for my main masterpiece!
Does anyone have high street shop brainwave on where to find fluffy chicks?

I am still waiting to find out if my dd's have got to do one.

We had a letter about 2 weeks ago stating that some classes would be doing easter bonnets and not a word since.

Have got 2 straw hats and chicks just incase, but have a horrible feeling they will spring it on me at the last miute.

Have got an old ladie's white straw hat I was planning on decorating for DD's easter bonnet parade. But it totally covers her face. This is probably because she is only 10 months. So need to work out some way to make it smaller, some sort of insert. Any ideas?

Can't you customise a baseball cap with bunnies/flowers/grass etc or is that cheating?

Can't believe how I spelt lady's . Think the hat will be too rigid. Tried it on DD and it came right over her face but she thought it was great fun and an excuse to play her favourite game of peek-a-boo. Asked around in the office and they suggested fastening a towel or tea towel around the inside.

Scarf would be more colourful and less hot

Aah yes decmum - could use DS's scarf, he never does. Not too worried about temperature really because its not like she's going to actually wear if for more than a small number of seconds is it? I mean a large hat with a brim on a 10 month old? With other crawling babies also in the equation.

Sorry for hijacking sleepyjess. I have just done the same as you in the past for DS. Made the hat from card stapled into a band. Last year DH also made a brim. Covered it in yellow crepe and then made a rafia nest, with chicks and mini eggs. Also cut out easter egg shapes, got DS to decorate - paint, glitter etc and stuck on.

This is my 1st year of having to do this. DD has some little chicks & an old straw hat so I thought it should be easy, but no, she refuses to use the chicks & insists we make a cardboard hat like a paper crown with eggs drawn on. She's really keen on colouring eggs ... but it's going to look so lame compared with what other people do & I feel a bit bad for her. The shock of lengths others went to on red nose day (as they call it) made me realise more effort is required... but no point upsetting her ...
anyway, interesting to read this so thought I'd have a moan.

Could you make the eggs fancy. Cut them out of paper and then decorate them with glitter, collage bits (eg from ELC) and then stick them onto the crown.

Tesco have a brilliant Easter activity kit which contains crepe paper, coloured card, paper, stencils and instructions for easter bonnets, collages and other bitz.

Had great fun today with ds1 making an easter bonnet.

We have made a brim out of card, then put tissue paper in to make the bit that covers the headd, then stuck tissue bits all over the brim. At least it looks homemade, and as though DD1 made it - she did decorate it!

Tonight DH and I are going to bite the bullet and construct the one that Humphrey linked too. I have bought green pipe cleaners (remembered my idea!) which will be like grass-type strands (in a symbolic way obviously!).. going to cover the cardboard bonnet in orange crepe paper.. attach the pipe cleaners in a sticky-uppy way.. and attach chicks and some little fluffy ball things that I also bought to the ends of the pipe cleaners. Got some mini eggs.. will stick some on somewhere (and eat the rest! ) and have got some nice yellow and orange ribbon with spring-style design for 40p from a bargain bin in the craft shop!

Will let you know how it goes. Thanks everyone for all the idea and input.

SJ x

I was searching for inspiration this morning. It must be a lot easier for a girl than for a boy! Found this which I might have a go at:-

Easter Hat

OK [smug] emoticon. I have just finished DSs Easter Hat. Its a white rabbit - thankfully he changed his mind from originally wanting a crocodile. A cardboard circle round his head with an oval top to it, round cotton wool head covered in white crepe paper, cardboard ears with pink felt in the middle, body covered in white crepe paper & a cotton wool tail. Just searching for something to make whiskers with (thats not pointy wire !)

We made DD's last night.. we did the one from Humphey's link.. (thanks!)

SJ x

Can someone explain to me why parents are making Easter bonnets - surely it's something the kids should do, either with parents or at school? I really don't like kids showing off their parents' creations - the ones with more time/more crepe paper are always going to outshine the ones who are permanently frazzled! I would much rather my DS wear his own efforts.