How to Make Mini Party Hats

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As I was researching decoration ideas for Noah’s dinosaur-themed birthday party, I kept coming across photos of cute tiny party hats placed on plastic dinosaur toys. I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate the idea into my decor. These mini party hats are one of my favorite DIY party ideas!

I ventured over to This Heart of Mine and used her template as a guide for making these adorable party hats. While she suggests cutting out her PDF template and tracing the hats by hand (which is perfectly simple), I cheated a little and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the shapes.

I pulled up her party hats template in Photoshopand used the eraser tool to remove the top part of the large at template, then saved it as a JPEG. This helped keep the trace tool in Silhouette Studio from picking up any unwanted lines from the larger hat. Then, I opened the edited JPEG in Silhouette Studio and used the trace tool to trace the outer edge of the template.

After copy and pasting several hats, I was ready to cut the file. I used a very lightweight card stock with white and orange stripes to create my hats, which I purchased at Hobby Lobby (for half price!). I just used the card stock setting on my Silhouette to cut the paper. Be sure to use your less sticky mat for this, or the paper will rip as you remove it from the backing.

Once the hats were cut, I removed the negative paper and slowly pulled each hat off my mat. For the stubborn ones, I use a straight pin to slide up underneath the paper and wiggle it free.

https://www.hunnyimhomediy.com/shop/dinosaur-birthday-invitation/

Next, I folded over one edge of the hat to have a place to put my line of hot glue. WARNING: you will get glue on your fingers, so be prepared to get a little burnt! 

Just put a line of hot glue along the fold, then quickly fold the hat over upon itself and hold tight for a few seconds as the glue cools.

Then, set the hat upright and place a dot of glue right on the top of the party hats.

Working quickly, grab a pom pom and place it on top, applying slight pressure to make sure it is secure.

After I had finished several hats, I started trying them on Noah’s dinosaurs to see if they fit, which resulted in an epic party-hat-clad dinosaur fight. He was getting frustrated that the party hats weren’t staying on the dinosaurs’ heads, so I later added strips of elastic to each hat to make them more secure (sorry, I forgot to photograph that part!).

As you can see from the party photo, the dino party hat theme extended to the treat bags as well!

Here’s how to make these adorable mini party hats:

Supplies

Template

Scissors (or Silhouette)

Cardstock

Pompoms

Glue gun

Elastic

1. Use the template to trace and cut out party hat shapes.
2. Make a small fold on one side of the hat.
3. Draw a line of glue along the fold.
4. Wrap the hat around, gluing each side together. Hold tightly for a few seconds.
5. Add a drop of glue to the top and place pompom on glue, holding to secure.
6. Cut a small strip of elastic and glue each end to the inside of the hat.
7. Place on dinosaur’s head and party!

If you you’re looking for more projects or inspiration, check out these other posts:

My Dinosaur Themed Party

Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party Inspiration