DIY Queen of Hearts Crown

What do you need to top off an amazing Queen of Hearts costume? A crown of course!  I went searching all over the internet for the perfect crown but there really wasn’t much available out there that didn’t cost a crazy amount for lets face it probably a one time wear. What to do but do it myself naturally!

What You Need:

• Craft Foam (You can use any colour as you’ll be painting over it anyway)
• Gold, Black and Red Paint
• Paint Brush
• Red Heart Gems
• Hot Glue Gun and Extra Glue Sticks
• Headband
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Craft Knife

Step 1:

Rule out some strips on your craft foam. I used about 10 of them. Two for the base and two for each side bit. Depending on how big you want the finished product to be, you can change the dimensions of the strips. My crown was possibly bigger than necessary and bigger than I first intended but it worked well with my costume because I was suppose to be imposing and scary. If you want the same size as mine I used the full width of the a4 sheet of foam as the length x 2.5cm.

Step 2:

Glue two of the strips together making sure there are no air bubbles. Then glue the ends together to make a circle. This is the base of your crown. Take another strip and use it to hide the seam by gluing it to the outside of the ring. I was after a more grungy looking crown so I didn’t mind the bobbled bits of glue I left everywhere but if you want something more polished go along as you glue and clean up the bits that are sticking out with a spare strip of foam.

Step 3:

Add 3 more strips of foam around the outside of the ring to match the first one at opposite sides of the base. Once they are dry add the second strip on the inside of the crown as shown below. on each side strip. Cut off the excess foam at the top

Step 4:

Cut out 8 even thinner strips to create some more dimensions on the crown. Glue them on the each side of the four larger strips.

Step 5:

Cut out two foam circles for the base for the base of the heart that goes on top of your crown and glue them together. Then cut out various sizes of smaller circles to create a tiered effect. All glued on top of each other.  I used the bottom of a salt shaker to trace around my first larger circles. I then couldn’t really find anything to trace around for the circles as they got smaller so free handed them so they are a little bit wonky. Lastly cut out the heart shape you want on top of the crown, one large one then two slightly smaller ones to glue on either side to create a bevel effect. I had planned to print out a heart shape from the internet to trace but my print died recently and I haven’t gotten myself a new one yet so again freehand hearts.

Step 6:

Join the two opposite side strips together at the top with hot glue. Then the other two opposites over the top of the first two.

Step 7:

Take your largest circles and glue it in the middle on the top. Then press it down in the middle to get the desired shape and glue the strips to the side of the circle to get that heart shaped bend in the side strips. Do this for each side strip.

Step 8:

Glue all your smaller circles one on top of each other on the top of your crown. Then snip off the pointy bit of the hearts so that it sits better and glue that on top of the smallest circle. That is the basic crown shape finished!

Step 9:

Paint your crown gold. I needed a few coats to fully cover the red foam underneath. Although I didn’t mind the effect that the red peaking out had. It was in my colour scheme anyway so I didn’t worry about it too much. Yellow foam might have been easier to cover with gold paint though.

Step 10:

I then painted black strips down the side and the heart on top red of course but feel free to paint however you see fit.

Step 11:

Once the paint is dry hot glue hot your red heart gem stones wherever you want them. The pack I got from Spotlight only had two of every size so I used the biggest two on either side of the heart at the top and then two medium size ones of either side of the side strips and the next closest in size on the other two opposite side strips. You can’t tell that they are slightly different sizes.

Step 12:

To attach the crown to a headband, I took a craft knife and cut through the foam at the bottom of the crown in the gaps between the sides on either side. I didn’t want to have to cut through too much of the foam so I chose the gaps but this did mean that the crown sat a little off centre of the headband. Personally I wouldn’t have worn the crown straight on my head anyway so it worked for me. I punctured the crown all the way through in slits big enough for the headband to then be fed through. This was a little tricky because the headband I bought was wrapped with black fabric but I still managed. Because my crown was quite large I had to use alligator clips to attach the headband to my hair to so that it didn’t fall off.

This crown was part of a dancing costume for me. It got a bit of wear and tear and my heart fell off so I had to re-glue it on. I used an extra lot of the glue to make sure it would stay on, on the night which then wasn’t painted gold. For standard costume purposes you shouldn’t have a problem with this.

All up I paid:

Craft Foam $2.79
Red Heart Gems $4.99
Black Headband $4.99
All other elements I already owned

Total: $12.77

Much cheaper than the crowns I found online and it was totally awesome looking in the photos, don’t you think? Craft foam is so versatile. You can pretty much make anything out of it. This is how I ended up making my crown but feel free to get creative and mix it up a bit for your own crown. Maybe make the base larger and have 6 side bits that aren’t as tall. It’s up to you. I hope I have helped you get started and given you a little inspiration of where to go with it.