The Very Hungry Caterpillar Party Hat

My baby is almost 9 months old, time to start planning his 1st Birthday Party!

I know I'm setting myself up for failure by going all out on a first birthday of my first child, because I'll have to do that from here on out for every kid! I guess I learned it from the best because my mom, Raejean over at Easy as Pie! did the same thing when we were kids. Every party had a theme and everything went with it, but they were really fun. Other moms would tell her that she needed to be a party planner! You can check out some of her more current celebrations here.

If you read what we did for Valentine's Day you would have seen that we like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so that's what we chose for his "theme". (Ok, I chose it but convinced my husband that he should "choose" it for me. Like how that works? ;)

The inspiration for this party hat is from Sweet Love Creates Photography Props. She has the cutest knit hungry caterpillar set for newborn photo-shoots. Seeing that my little one's birthday is in the middle of summer in Arizona I don't think anything knit would be the way to go, but this is adorable and I wish I had seen it when he was littler!

My hat is currently made from construction paper and laid over another party hat (thanks, sis!) until I go get the cardstock I need. I have a few months, but I wanted to do this one so I knew what I needed to go and get. Anyway... Here's how to make it!

Materials:
Red Cardstock
Green Cardstock
Yellow Cardstock
Blue or Purple Cardstock
Elastic
Skewers
Glue
Tape
Party Hat(to use as template)

Directions
1. Use another party hat and lay it down on your red cardstock. Trace it and then cut it out. Also cut the slits where needed. Put it together, and tape if necessary. (Party hats hate me, so I tape them!)

2. Cut out yellow circles. You need 2 per hat, and they shouldn't be perfect circles, make them messy looking!

3. Cut out smaller green circles, you need two per hat as well. Glue them to the yellow circles. Once they dry, glue them to the hat.

4. Rip out a nose shape from the blue or purple cardstock. Glue it to the hat.

5. Cut out antenna shaped like the ones in the book, messy is fine, that's kind of the Eric Carle look (Dear Eric Carle, that's a compliment!). These you need 4 per hat. Two for the front and two for the back. Glue them to your skewers, one on each side to hide the skewers. Shorten the skewers first if you need to, like in this post. You can also cut off the points just in case kids pull them out and start trying to sword fight!

6. Cut a small hole in the top of the party hat, one on each side and slide the skewers in. The skewers won't poke anyone's heads if they don't go down far enough (unless you have some party goers with cone heads) but if you want to make it extra safe some foam and glue would be good in there.

Now I just need to go shopping and make a whole bunch for the party that's ONLY 4 MONTHS AWAY!! Haha I hope this adds to your Very Hungry Caterpillar parties, and stay tuned because I will be creating more fun things in the next few months to come! Thanks for reading!


Disclosure: The infant model posing in this hat was well paid in cheerios for wearing such a goofy thing!