Palm leaves can be dried or fresh.
Themed parties are a festive way to celebrate the summer or a beach vacation. An extra embellishment to party decorations is a hat of palm tree leaves. Provide a palm tree leaf hat for each party guest to create an island or tropical feel to your event. By using an inexpensive straw hat as a frame, you can create a palm tree leaf hat from dried or fresh palm leaves in about 30 minutes.
Instructions
1. Cut the stem ends of the palm tree leaves straight across so the edge is flat. They might not be the same length. That's OK.
2. Use an inexpensive straw hat as a frame.
Place the straw hat on a table. Use the glue gun to glue the top edge of one palm tree leaf onto the center top of the straw hat. Glue down the entire palm leaf over the hat. The palm leaf will extend farther than the brim of the hat. Glue the leaf onto the brim as well.
3. Position another palm leaf beside the first, overlapping the leaves. The amount of overlap doesn't matter. Glue this palm leaf onto the hat, the other leaf, and over the brim. Glue the other two or three (depending on the size of the hat; you want the entire hat to be concealed by the palm tree leaves) palm tree leaves onto the hat, one next to the other, continuing to overlap the leaves.
4. Glue the fabric circle to the top center of the palm leaf-covered hat.
Squirt a fine line of glue around the 4-inch diameter tan or leaf green fabric circle. Use tan for dried palm tree leaves and leaf green for fresh palm tree leaves. Press the fabric circle down firmly onto the center of the top of the hat to cover the origin point of the palm tree leaves. This gives the hat a cleaner finish. Use 100 percent cotton fabric if available as this fabric glues well.
5. Wrap a piece of twine around the hat and tie a knot in the front just above the concealed brim. Glue the twine into place. The twine gives the hat the appearance of holding the palm tree leaves together. Unravel the ends of the twine about 1/2 inch for a decorative effect.
6. Trim the palm leaves if they extend farther than 6 inches from the hat brim.
Trim or thin down the palm tree leaves if they extend farther than 6 inches over the brim of the concealed hat.
Tags: palm tree leaves, palm tree, tree leaves, palm leaf, palm tree, tree leaves