Happy Halloween everyone! Today I wanted to treat you all with my very first DIY blog. Yipee!

My youngest daughter was born on 10/30/2011, so this year we decided to have a costume party for her. I’m sure this is just the first of many costume parties but I don’t typically dress up for Halloween and had nothing to wear. I shopped around and couldn’t find anything unique enough for my taste so it was two days before the party before I even had an idea. I would go as Queen Raveena from Snow White and the Huntsman. While I could never compare to the beautiful Charlize Theron I was confident that I could make a unique costume, one that no one else would be wearing.

I decided I wanted to make a crown. I didn’t have time to go shopping so I was forced to use what was lying around my house… Duct tape. I hope you all enjoy this DIY and perhaps you will share pictures of your very own with me. It may be to late to make one for tonight but if you have a party planned Saturday you will have plenty of time to complete this. Before we get started I wanted to give you a moment to look at the final product.

Step One (Making the headband part 1)

You will need to find something to make a headband out of. In this picture you can see I used an elastic band. You can use pretty much anything that will be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the tape as well as pliable enough to shape around your head. Make sure that you measure it specifically to the shape of your head. Failure to do so will mean you have crown that doesn’t fit. This step is probably one of the most important ones so make sure it is not too tight or too loose to fit around your head. You don’t need extra slack for this project as the tape doesn’t remove enough of the circumference to have a noticeable effect.

I had weak spots in my elastic band so I reinforced them with a layer of tape. This may not have been needed but it didn’t hurt.

Step Two (Making the headband part 2)

Full wrap your headband with duct tape. It doesn’t matter what direction the tape is going or how many pieces of tape you use.

Step Three (Making the diamonds)

I used scrap book paper to make the points of my crown. I folded the sheet of paper twice long ways. I used a diamond pattern for the shape of my points. Cut along the line. This created two identically cut diamonds. (Note: This method will make two diamonds that are NOT attached. You will need to line them up on top of each other before applying tape in the next step.) I wasn’t sure how tall I needed to make them so I cut two or three before I found the right height. Use the first one you like as a stencil for all the others. This will ensure that each point is the same shape and height. You will need to have two sizes. One tall and one short. I needed 4 of each, but this will depend on the size of your headbands and diamonds.

Step Four (Making the diamonds part 2)

Line up the diamonds on top of each other. Cover them in duct tape. Cut any excess tape off. Make sure that when you cut you are not re-exposing the paper. If you re-expose the paper fold a piece of tape over the edge where it wont have to be cut again. You don’t want to leave the paper exposed or it won’t have a finished look in the end.

Step Five (Attaching the diamonds to the headband)

Start off with one tall diamond. Center it in what will be the front of the crown. (You can wear it in any direction but for creation purposes please create a “front”.) Line the bottom tip of the diamond in the center of the headband. (Half way from the top and bottom.) Place a piece of tape along the front of it to adhere it the headband. Don’t worry if your tape over laps the shape of the diamond.

This step is a good time to make sure you made enough diamonds. You can temporarily tape each diamond around the headband. If you realize you need more go ahead and make more. Make sure that when you go around the crown that you follow the pattern tall to short. You don’t want to end up with two talls or two shorts next to each other. To do this I placed a tall first, two shorts on each side of the first tall and continued this method until the back. Because this is round you should end up with a tall diamond centered on the back of the headband. If you don’t realign your diamonds so that the last one in the back is also centered with the one in the front.

Step Six (Attaching the diamonds to the headband part 2)

You are only going to attach one diamond at a time.

(Once you have more than one point attached you will need to attach in the front as well as the back. )

The tape can overlap the top of the band and be higher up the diamond. See below:

Please ignore “a” in this step and assume that only one point is present. Notice how “b” is overlapping. What you will do is cut the tape along the edge of the diamond where it overlaps:

See where the red lines are? Cut there. Fold the tape down and attach it to the back of the headband.

Depending on how your tape folds you can also fold it up or side ways. Whatever you can do to follow the direction of the tape and symmetry of the point is fine. You will do this for every point you attach.

Step Seven (Attaching the diamonds to the headband part 3)

Place a short diamond next to the tall diamond. Follow the same steps in Step Five in regard to centering and everything else. BEFORE you attach this new point to the side of the first point you need to make sure the tall point is on top of the short point. You will want to always place the corners of the short points behind the tall points so that the tall points overlap on top of the short points. (Please ignore the hamburger, I got hungry and this was the best shot I had of this step.)

Place tape over the top of the two corners of the points that now meet. Follow the same steps in Step Six to cut and fold the overlapping tape.

Now that you have more than one you will start reinforcing the back as well. See “a”. You will want to cut a small piece of tape to go across the two points as picture here.

“B” shows you what it looks like once you cut the overlapping tape and fold it down. “C” shows you what it looks like from the back view before you cut and fold the overlapping tape.

Repeat this process until all points are attached.

You can choose to stop here if you would like. I think this looks nice before painting but if you want to paint it you can.

Step 8 (Optional painting)

I first did a coat of black paint acrylic. I let it dry over night. If you use a fast drying paint or start early enough in the day you don’t have to wait overnight. After the black paint was dry I did a coat of gold paint.

Step 9 (Optional adhering rhinestones.)

I waited until the gold paint had fully dried and I hot glued the rhinestones. If you don’t have a hot glue gun you can use super glue or any other adhesive. I just prefer hot glue in this application. Simply apply the rhinestones in between each diamond as pictured below.

Here’s the final product:

Please note: I wanted to get this posted before leaving to take the girls trick or treating. I will come back and proof read and do some conditional formatting some time in the near future. Please let me know if you need help with any of the steps by leaving a comment.