One of my most favorite DIY projects EVER are the lace princess crowns I made for the girls’ birthday parties. I was pretty pleased with myself last year when I made the first set of crowns, adding color and glitter to the ideas I’d seen online. Since then, I’ve made several more crowns and after Addison’s Princess and the Popstar party a couple weeks ago, I have some updates to my original tutorial to share.
- Choosing Synthetic laces vs. cotton lace – the synthetic laces seem to hold their intricate detail/shape better than the soft cotton laces, such as the vintage trims I used in the past. Look for wider designs with a lot of variation in the trim for taller crowns.
- Saturate the trim in fabric stiffener, swipe off excess with your fingers, lay the lace flat to dry in a straight line on waxed paper. Turn several times to ensure all of the holes in the lace are clear of excess stiffener.
- This is an excellent summertime project (particularly here in the dry heat of CA – not sure how humidity effects drying time). I was able to add stiffener, dry out the lace, paint, and glitter the crowns all within about a half a day. When I made them previously in January, it took several days. After each step, I set the lace outside to dry – temperature was about 90 degrees that day.
- Apply one coat of acrylic paint to both sides in the same color as the glitter you’d like to apply. Allow to dry.
- To add glitter: choose a very fine glitter – this makes all the difference. This glitter from Martha Stewart Crafts worked a million times better than anything else I’ve tried.
- Use a foam brush to apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over the painted lace. Sprinkle with glitter. Shake off excess glitter. Set out to dry (this doesn’t take long). Flip over. Apply a layer of glitter to the other side.
- Immediately overlap and hot glue the ends of the lace together to form a circle. Use this tip to dry the crown into the perfect circular shape. Set outside to dry for several hours or overnight.
- Store crowns the same way you dried them. I have mine all stacked on one take-out container after the next.
Super cute, right? I love these crowns!!! And I love knowing that I can make them in a snap in this hot weather! Have you made one yet?
For more details and pictured instructions, you can see my original tutorial here.
