DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Graduation Cap Craft

Contributed by Leanne Guenther

They grow up so fast!!!

Materials (for a full sized cap to fit a child):

• sheet of poster board in appropriate color (school colors)
• scissors,
• ruler
• stapler
• Optional:  wool in an appropriate color (school colors)

Instructions:

• You can use white poster board and paint it an appropriate color, but I find the board curls a bit when painted.  You're better off purchasing the poster board in the color you need.
• Measure out two equal sized squares onto the poster board.  The squares should be about 12" across.
• Cut out the squares.
• Set one aside.  On the other square snip triangles out of the corners to form a sort of cross shape as shown in the image to the right.
• Fold the sides of the cross (see yellow dotted lines in image).
• Staple the edges together where they meet (see yellow circles in the image).
• Repeat with the other sides to form a "cup shape" that the child will wear on their head.
• Staple or glue the square on top of the cup shape to form your grad cap.
• Optional:  Make a tassel with wool:
  • Wrap a piece of wool around a 3 1/2 inch disk, your hand or a piece of cardboard about 20 times
  • Tie a long piece of wool (about 24") through the loop
  • Remove wool from base and tie a 4" piece of wool around the loop you've made about 3/4" down from the top
  • Snip the ends at the bottom to form the tassel.
  • Staple or tape the tassel to the cap

Craft Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP in most browsers).

Template   (color)   (B&W)

The template is about 1/3 the size you'll need for a child, but you can use it to make a cap for a teddy bear or use it to follow along when you're measuring.

Printable version of these instructions