We have enjoyed watching some of the celebrations of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on the tv over the long weekend. My boys are on holiday from school this week, but last week did lots of activities at school in the run-up to the big event.
* learning the National Anthem in class
* All week the school lunch menu was 'Jubilee' themed (British and Commonwealth meals)
* An afternoon tea party with scones and tea (fruit juice!)
* Making crowns at home to wear to the tea party...that's what I'll be sharing with you today.
They were so excited to make their crowns, bless them, but I have to admit that I did leave them to rather the last minute because I have been so tired just recently with pregnancy number 4 (22 weeks now - very exciting!).
I would have loved for them to have more of a part in the making process but they were still just as happy to tell me their designs and for me to make them while they slept. Plus...it was a lovely surprise for them to come down the next morning and find them!
When I set about making them, I did the usual thing of searching in the recycling box for materials ...only to find we had just one cereal box...eek! Well, that just added to the challenge - make three crowns in one evening, from one cereal box! Here's how I did it...
First I opened up the cereal box so it was flat then cut it into 3 equal strips (so I then had 3 long strips).
Then, while the boys were eating their dinner, I held a strip around each of their heads and stapled in place to create a snug fit (ha ha, that sounds like I stapled to their heads!! Be assured that I didn't). I tried to remember to have the flat side of the staple on the inside of the crowns to make sure the sharp side didn't scratch on their heads.
I then had three circlular bands of card, ready to become crowns.
This was the easiest and quickest to make. He wanted points and curves alternating all the way around. I started by doing points all the way around and then cutting every other point into a curve (or semi circle).
Daddy then took the crown to the end of the garden and sprayed it silver...I know, not the most environmentally friendly choice, but we had it in the house and, as always when making things, I try to use things we already have to hand and not buy anything extra if we don't need to.
Oh, I should also add that I made sure all 3 crowns had the coloured side of the cereal box on the inside and the plain side on the outside so that the paint would stick easier.
The other 2 crowns were made by keeping the original strip of card as it was and adding 2 thinner, long strips of cereal box card (which I salvaged from the flap off-cuts and stapled together). I just laid each strip over the crown to make it curve and then stapled each end to the crown base band and then stapled where they overlapped in the middle, to keep in place. These then got sprayed silver by Daddy too.
By the time all excitement of the silver spraying was done and the crowns were dry, it was off to bed for my three little Kings. The making fairy (aka a very tired Mummy) got to work at the finishing details.
I had been given some remnants of red, white and blue fleece blankets a while ago that someone had already used for a project, so these became the perfect choice to embelish the crowns. Also, as you may already know, I LOVE using fleece or felt to work with because it doesn't fray!
WHITE - I cut strips and used this as the fur edging, using little black rectangles of fleece too. This was stapled on.
RED - Quite tricky, but I cut larger sqaures of fleece and stapled them to the inside of the crowns.
BLUE - Small squares of fleece with some squares of silver card on the top, stapled on.
That's pretty much it!
1 cereal box + 3 enthusiastic and excited boys + 1 tired Mummy maker = 3 crowns to wear while munching on a Jubilee tea party!
What I used:
* 1 cereal box
* Silver spray paint
* Stapler and staples (LOTS!)
* Scissors
* Red, white, blue and black fleece
* Silver card (tin foil would have worked just as well)
How about making a crown from that cereal box you're about to recycle? After all, who says the Jubilee celebrations have to end already?!
