DIY Party Hats

My cousin Reed, turned 18 years old Saturday and my parents threw him a little family celebration at their home on Hilton Head. We had a cookout, swam in the pool, enjoyed each other's company and celebrated with cake from Ronnie's Bakery. I spent some time Friday afternoon making my own birthday hats. I had attempted this several times before, but I think these ones were my best yet!  Here's a detailed look at how to create your own party hats from scratch (as well as some cute party pictures!)

You will need:

• 12 x 12 scrapbook paper 
• Scissors
• Scalloped hole punch 
• Circle hole punch 
• PSA Essentials stamper 
• Just a Note Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials
• Glue gun 
• Painters tape 
• Small hole punch 
• Twine from The Twinery or Ribbon 
• Pom poms

Quickly and easily sketch out the cone shape on paper. It doesn't have to be perfect.  If you want it to be perfect, use this party hat template that I've used before from Oh Happy Day. Find it here. Also, these cones on 12 x 12 yield rather large party hats.  Smaller hats, you can make on 8.5 x 11 paper.

Roll the paper into a cone shape once you've cut out.

You will want to use painters tape or Scotch tape to temporarily secure the cone.  Then heat up your hot glue gun and secure permanently with glue.

To make them uniform, cut out using your first shape.

Load your PSA Stamper with "Happy Birthday" from PSA Just A Note Peel & Stick pack. Stamp onto white paper. Then punch out using your circle punch.

Using coordinating cardstock, punch out scallops on colorful paper.

Now prepare to glue by heating up your hot glue gun (best invention EVER.)  Glue the cones together. Glue the round stamped sentiments onto the scalloped ones. Then glue that to the cones. Use pom poms and ribbon to decorate the hats!

Your last step is to hole punch the sides and tie in ribbon. This is so the hats can sit securely on your guests heads!

I used a combination of ribbon from Paper Source, twine from The Twinery and white tulle.

They turned out really great, I was happy with how colorful they were and also how sturdy they were (that glue gun!)  Here's my daughter, Molly, modeling the "princess" style. This is the only one I used with tulle. I prefer how the twine looked. 

Here are some party pics! Here's Reed holding Molly in the pool! 

My mom had a cute idea to print out pictures of Reed and display them all over the house. 

My cousins Reed and Ben are the sweetest, nicest boys around. Since I am an only child, my cousins are like brothers to me. This summer, Reed has been my manny (male nanny!) The kids love spending time with him and we've been having fun together too. Happy 18th birthday Reed! 

Let me know what you think of the party hats!