Autumn is here and the hedgerows are quite bare – but there is still some colour to find in nature.
This easy card fascinator diy utilises natures autumnal offerings beautifully – while recycling your consumer cardboard waste – and getting you ready for Halloween season!
Make an afternoon more interesting with this easy floral fascinator Diy project – it’s guaranteed to get you uplifted – and a walk in nature is included! Let’s get started!
Step by step tutorial to making your fascinator
To make your easy card fascinator, start by painting your pizza box with acrylic paint! – I chose a neutral colour – but only your imagination sets the limits for colour choice! It may need two coats to cover the printed side. If you prefer you can use any kind of card stock – recycled or not – for this craft, instead of a card box.
How to make an easy card fascinator
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
- 1. Cut the pizza box into strips – some wide and some narrower – just make sure you have an even number of each width. Alternatively cut your cardboard into strips.
- 2. Glue the strips together, in pairs, so you get some longer lengths to work with.
- 3. To form the fascinator base fold a wide strip over on itself starting in the middle of the strip (see picture).
- 4. Keep folding the strip over, ending in the same point, until you have what looks like a giant bow. Tip: if you are using a pizza box like me, there will be some folds in your card strips, if you line these up on the point where your strips cross over they will be hidden away neatly.
- 5. Punch two holes through all the layers where they overlap. Alternatively use a stapler and staple the layers together, or glue and leave to dry.
- 6. Pull narrow ribbon through the two holes, securing the layers together, and tie together. Omit this step if you used staples.
- 7. Make another fascinator piece by folding your narrow strips in the same way as in thep 4.
- 8. Punch holes, or staple together, as in step 6.
- 9. Pull the ribbon from the base piece through the top piece, and tie to secure. Alternatively staple the top piece to the base. You can make as many layere as you want, I just made two layers, but you could go wild here!
Adding foliage to your floral fascianator
Collect whatever foliage you can find – a great excuse for a lovely autumn waik! It’s winding down out there, but you’ll be surprised what you can still find. Go for texture as well as colour – berries, grasses and leaves are often a great source of interest in nature during the autumn and winter months.
Punch holes all over your card fascinator – a single hole punch is very useful for this job!
And now for the fun bit – start inserting your foliage into the holes in your fascinator! This part I really enjoyed, as you can be really creative here – I guess it’s like flower arranging!
If something seems a bit loose you can use tape to attach the foliage stems to the back of your fascinator bands.
When inserting your foliage consider the overall feel and size you want to achieve, if you add a large sprig at the top it’s going to look a lot more bold than if you tuck it in at the bottom!
How to wear your floral fascinator
My floral fascinator ended up like this – and I must say I love it!
The best bit for me was the freedom of design all the way through the project – it was as if the fascinator just evolved and took a path of it’s own!
Punch holes in the base of your fascinator – and thread through a narrow ribbon for attaching it to your head.
If your fascinator is quite large and heavy you may need additional support when wearing it. In this case you can attach a piece of wide dress elastic to the base instead of a ribbon.
And that – as they say – is a wrap! (which is exactly what I did with the narrow ribbon round the back of my head). In reality I think my fascinator needs the wide elastic I mentioned above – as I’m having to support it with my hand in this picture! – it’s probably all those beautiful red crab apples weighing it down!
I’ll be adding elastic later and then I’ve got my Halloween costume sorted for this year – Queen of autumn! Of course, because it’s a headdress with fresh foliage, it will only stay fresh for a day or so, but I’ll be replacing the foliage for each celebration!
Why not use your floral autumn fascinator as a table centrepiece? This is another great use for this seasonal craft – or wear it for as long as you want and then place it on the table!
In conclusion this has been a really fun and uplifting autumn diy craft – and I can’t wait to don this beautiful floral fascinator to our autumn festivities this year! I hope you have fun with it too!
Lots of love
Ulla x
Please email me anytime at ulla@theawesomechildhoodproject.com if you have a question, requests or comments
Want more projetct ideas? Try these other nature inspired diy projects for adults from the blog:
Make your own Woodland animal headbands!
Create your own beautiful flower petal party poppers
