Hey Collegiettes!
If you’re graduating, congratulations! If you’re not, this blog can go in your bookmarks folder so you’ll have some cool ideas when you have a cap to decorate. As always, the Internet is a great resource for finding inspiration for crafting. I found some neat caps on Pinterest that I’ll share with you:
Common grad cap themes include shout-outs to moms and dads, monograms, post-grad plans (law school name, job-related decorations, etc.), and of course LOTS OF SPARKLE. You’re going to want your loved ones to be able to pick you out of the sea of caps at graduation, so the bling-ier the better.
Let’s get started! Obviously this is just a step-by-step process of my personal decorations for my cap so you don’t necessarily need to do the exact same thing on your own. Creativity and careful planning is highly encouraged with this project because it’s something you’ll likely keep for a very long time (and if you mess up you can’t get another cap!).
Here’s what you’ll need:
Start off by cutting some fabric and ribbon pieces. I chose to go with a good ol’ Gator colors theme, but you can do whatever you want of course!
Next you’re going to want to figure out what pattern you’ll be making on your cap. Do you want plaid? Chevron? Stripes? Visualize what you want it to look like or even sketch it out so you have far less of a chance of messing up. Start gluing and be sure to get all those pesky little hot glue “hairs” out of there so that they don’t make a surprise appearance in your grad photos.
Continue with the gluing process, and remember to take your time so you can make sure everything’s nice and straight. My cap wasn’t totally even; the little center piece (it probably has a technical name, but I don’t know it) wasn’t exactly in the center so some of my lines ended up looking a little bit off.
The next step took me a couple hours to complete because I’m kind of a perfectionist. Get comfy before you attempt to glue 100 sequins by hand! I found it was a lot easier to make straight lines with the sequins I had because they had straight edges, so if you can find a color you like with straight edges make sure you snatch ‘em up! Take your time and make sure you use a lot of glue; some of my sequins decided to fall off during my grad photos!
Finally, you can add a little finishing touch like your name or graduation year. I used foam (which wasn’t included in the supplies photo, oops!) to cut out numbers, and I hot-glued them on. I think it kind of makes the whole thing a little more cohesive and finishes it nicely. Again, use your creativity with this part!
So, that’s it! Now you’re ready to graduate in style like a true collegiette.
Since I’m graduating, I’ll be leaving my position as the Crafty Gator, but I hope I’ve inspired you to always be creative and find ways to make boring things a little less-boring. Also, arts and crafts are a great procrastination tool, and you’ll still graduate even if you choose to be crafty rather than academic sometimes!
Thanks for reading, and have a great summer!