How To Make a Mermaid Crown

When my old friend told me her daughter decided she wanted a mermaid themed birthday party I.WAS.THRILLED!!!! Mermaids are one of my all-time favorite things, and I have a giant pin-up mermaid tat on my right side that may as well be a self-portrait, so needless to say I was super stoked that she reached out to me to help put some fun things together for her little girl's big day! I was told her favorite colors are bright pink, purple, and blue - so basically this little girl is my spirit animal because those colors are my jam along with mermaid as crafting so I was so happy to be involved in her special day! It was basically like being asked to make my inner child's dreams come true, and it doesn't really get better than that!

First order of business was a mermaid crown - obviously. 

For this craft, you will need:
- Headband/Headpiece
- Seashells (various)
- Paint
- Glitter
- Hot Glue/Super Glue

1. Make the Base of the Crown
As far as the support/base of the crown went, I had two legit options just lying around the house (because as a crafter you pick up a ton of fun things to play with), so I had a headband with teeth which is great because it will stay on her head while running around, but I needed to find a way to build the shells "up" like a crown, which is the shape that the long-toothed plastic crown head-piece offered. So basically I needed to find a way to combine the two to get the share that I wanted.

In the end, I was able to remove the long teeth from the crown head-piece and attach it to the top of the headband using hot-glue. which worked perfectly. ​

2. Establish the Design for Your Crown
Now that I had my shape set and ready to go, I went through my shell collection and made a design that worked with the shape of the crown I had made. I wanted to use a variety of shell sizes and types to make it layered and amazing, and in the end I was able to play around and find something that I liked.

PSA -Please ignore all the pieces of paper on the floor in the background, I was making paper flowers earlier and didn't vaccuum until all crafting for the day was done... #notsorry

3. Paint/Decorate Shells
Using her favorite colors and gold to make them pop, I painted each shell the desired color. When they were dry, I used glitter paint (sometimes also mixed with normal glitter for an extra shine) as a second coat to make sure the crown sparkled and shined like a real princess crown rightfully should.

4. Glue Shells into Place on the Crown
I used hot-glue because I love it and tend to have good luck with it and placement is important to me on this project so I like that it dried quickly. I know not everyone is a fan of hot glue, but you can use any type of glue you like, E600, etc., just make sure it's strong enough to keep everything together.

5. Final Touches
As you can imagine, the back of this piece was not cute, and as it sticks straight up when you put it on, the not-cute parts were totally visible, so I cut up some felt and used it as a backing on the crown to hide the ugliness. 

I can not tell you how happy I am with how this piece came out, and I can't wait to see how the birthday girl reacts when she sees this fabulousness!