Series 6: The Box Chain #3 - King Hat

This post was originally part of Home Spun - Threads' Summer Soirée: Craft Camp for Kids. I'm re-posting it here now and including it in Series 6: The Box Chain. In today's tutorial, I actually show you how to make the chains step-by-step. Exciting stuff. I hadn't done that before. But here 'tis . Hopefully any questions you may have had about the box chains will be clarified (although I do think you know how to make these already).

So for installment #3 of the series, the boy and I are sharing how we made his box chain "king hat". He's got a whole collection of these home-made "king hats", as he calls them. This is our most recent addition! Let us begin...

Tutorial: Box Chain King Hat

Basically, our king hat is just a band of craft paper onto which we've attached box chains made from junk mail and old gift wrap. The chains do take some time to make so I like to divide this craft over two days so as not to bore the little guy. We make the chains one day, and put the whole thing together the next.

Supplies needed for this craft:

• junk mail and/or old gift wrap
• brown craft paper (or any large flexible paper; newspaper works great)
• pair of scissors
• ruler
• PVA glue/glue stick

If you already know how to make the box chains, skip on over to step 10. For those of you who've not yet heard of these snazzy little box chains, let's go through steps 1 to 9 lickety-split. It's super-easy; your children will love making these versatile chains once they get the hang of them.

1. Cut your junk mail and/or old gift wrap into 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) strips.

2. Take two strips and glue the ends together at 90° angles to one another.

3. Take the strip that is hanging vertically down and fold it up, keeping the 90° angle.

4. Now take the horizontal strip and fold it over to the right, maintaining that 90° angle.

5. Fold the vertical strip back down, yep, with the 90° angle.

6. Fold the horizontal strip back over to the left at a 90° angle.

7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 until you get to the end of your strips.

8. Glue the last little end down.

9. Here's what your finished box chain looks like. Happy, simple box chain.

10. Glue several chains together to make longer chains. We made 2 chains long enough to fit around my little guy's head. (Note: Do not overpull the chains.)

We need some little box chain gems as well. It is a king hat after all.

To make a gem:

11. Take a short chain, some glue and a short strip of paper.

12. Slather glue on the short strip of paper.

13. Glue one end of the chain to the strip of paper.

14. Glue the other end of the chain to the strip as well. Repeat many times. We made 12 gems in total. Pretty gems.

15. Cut out a piece of craft paper to fit around your child's head adding 3 inches (7.5 cm) for an overlap. We made ours 24 inches (60 cm) long by 9 inches (23 cm) wide. Fold the craft paper in half lengthwise. Apply glue between the layers leaving 3 inches (7.5 cm) at both ends free of glue.

16. Apply a very generous bead of PVA glue to the edges of your craft paper. Do not apply glue to the overlap shown in Photo 16 (last 3 inches or 7.5 cm). Place your long box chain on the bead of glue, making sure that the chain comes in contact with the glue along the entire bead. No chains on the overlap. Glue on the gems as desired. Let the glue dry.

17. Complete the crown by applying glue to the back, front and between the layers of the overlap. Bring the overlap around and insert it between the layers of the other end.

18. Press the layers together to complete the crown. And look-ee, you are done!

And here it is: the end product...

One king-hat for his royal highness. Gord knows he possesses nary a cell of royal blood but that certainly doesn't stop him from acting like he does, my sweet little monarch.

To visit the first two parts of this series click here and here.

Do have yourself a lovely day and I'll see you again on Wednesday!