How To – Easter Hat Tree

All that talk last Friday about Easter bonnets led me to recall a crafty Easter project from my past. Easter was drawing near, and my mother set the idea of an Easter hat tree before us. I believe it was an idea that originally came from my great Aunt Edna, who is a crafty queen in her own right. What resulted was a wonderfully tacky little Easter hat tree that is a great family project, or even a good long afternoon project for the kids to do once the Easter egg hunt is over and the adults are ready for a nap.

Here’s what you’ll need:

small Styrofoam cups

floral foam

floral moss

flower pot

small tree branch with multiple limbs – one that looks like a small tree

spray paint

poster paint and brushes

craft notions (ex: feathers, sequins, ribbons, buttons, etc.)

craft glue

Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and arrange the Styofoam cups upside-down on a cookie sheet.

Step 2:

Place cups in oven.  They will shrink and curl into small hat-like shapes.  My cups took only about 3-4 minutes, so watch carefully.  You may have a few “duds” to toss out, but that’s okay.  Just do another batch.

Step 3:

Decorate your hats however you wish, using your paints, craft glue and crafty bits.  I stuck with mostly bright Easter-y colors, but you could definitely alter your color scheme for other holidays.  As you can tell from the picture below, I always save those little extra buttons and beads that come with new cloths, and I raided that stash for this project.

Step 4:

Take your tree branch, making sure it is clear of all leaves and dirt, and spray paint it.  I went with white spray paint, but like I said before, you could go with whatever color you want.

Step 5:

Cut a piece of floral foam that will sit tightly into your flower pot.  Insert the “trunk” of your tree into the center of the foam so that the tree stands straight.

Step 6:

Cover the top of the pot with the floral moss, making sure to hide all of the floral foam.  You could use any type of covering that you’d like.  A bag of inexpensive jellybeans (that you don’t intend to eat) might be a neat idea…

Step 7:

Decorate your tree!  Just arrange the little hats on the branches, and you’re done.

I tried to use mostly things that I already had on hand for this project.  The flower pot, spray paint, tree branch, buttons, ribbon, and sequins were things I already had.  I did have to purchase the floral foam and moss, but for the most part this was a very inexpensive project.  If I had to make one change, I would have chosen a shorter tree branch.  This one is just a little too tall.

Hope you enjoy, and if you wind up trying out this little project, let me know how it turns out!