Feel like royalty for an afternoon. This little craft from Gathered Makes turns a single sheet of thick paper into a crown you can actually wear, and there is no glue or tape anywhere in it.
The trick is a folded strip that threads through slits in the back. It grips itself and holds the crown around your head. Kids can help draw the spikes, and you can size it up or down to fit any noggin.
All you need is thick paper, scissors, and a pencil. Once it is done you can leave it plain or decorate it however you like.
What paper to use
Thick paper is the whole game here. Card stock around 200 gsm holds a crown shape on a head; printer paper flops forward over the ears within a minute. Craft card from a pad of coloured sheets is ideal, and a cereal box cut flat works if that is what is in the recycling.
The sheet needs to be long enough to reach round. A4 or letter gives you a crown for a small child. For an adult head, tape two sheets end to end before you start drawing, or cut the band from a sheet of A3. Measure round the head with a strip of paper first and add two inches for the overlap, which is where the fastening strip does its work.
Sizing it to fit
An average four year old measures about 20 inches round the head, a ten year old about 21, an adult 22 to 23. The crown does not need to be exact because the threaded strip lets you pull it tighter or looser, but cutting the slits in the right place does matter. Put them about an inch and a half in from each end so there is card either side to take the strain.
If it slips down, the band is too wide for the head rather than too long. Trim half an inch off the bottom edge and the crown sits higher and grips better.
Drawing the spikes
Five or seven points looks like a crown. Four or six looks like a paper fence. Odd numbers put a point at the centre front, which is what your eye expects. Mark the midpoint of the band, draw the centre spike first, then work outward so the spacing stays even.
For a tiara rather than a crown, draw one tall centre point with two short ones either side and let the band taper away to nothing at the back. For a king's crown, make every spike the same height and round the tips instead of pointing them.
Decorating it without glue
The no-glue promise is easy to keep. Colour the spikes with felt tips before you cut, since a flat sheet is far easier to draw on than a curved band. Punch holes at the tips and thread ribbon through. Press a few self-adhesive gems on, which are stickers and so still not glue.
A construction paper crown takes paint badly - it curls as it dries. If you want colour, either start with coloured card or use dry media. This is also a good use for the patterned scrapbook paper that never gets used, because one sheet makes a crown that looks like it came from a party shop.
Making a batch for a party
Cut one crown carefully, then trace round it to make the rest. Drawing seven spikes freehand twelve times is how a twenty minute job becomes an hour. Trace the band and the spike line in pencil, stack two sheets and cut both at once, and the whole set comes out matching.
Leave the slits until last and cut them on each crown individually, because the position shifts with head size and a slit in the wrong place cannot be undone. Write each child's name on the inside of the band in pencil as you go. At a party, twelve identical crowns on a table become an argument within about four minutes.
