Paper Graduation Mortarboard Hat Tutorial

I made paper mortarboards for Ernie's Joy School class to wear at their graduation ("gradulation" as E says). The instructions I found were great, but I thought some pictures would make them better!

From a large piece of posterboard,laying "landscape" cut:
6 8"x8" squares
6 3"x24" strips (note-if I did this again, I'd cut these strips 4-6 inches thick)

Measure your child's head, and mark off a strip to that length.

Lay each strip down and mark off 1 1/2" long-ways with a straight edge and a ball point pen, pressing hard. (Or, if you having a boning tool, just use that.) Fold on the mark.

Cut one side of the paper like a saw. You don't want space in between the teeth, or this won't bend into a nice circle for you.

Bend into a circle with the "teeth" pointing in- tape together the ends so that the end of one side matchs with the head measurement marking on the other.

Put your hat circle on a piece of newsprint, drizzle with glue, and press well onto a square of paper.

Poke a hole in the middle with a nail, and use a brad to attach a tassel.

You can make your own tassel by wrapping yarn around a 6" piece of cardboard (I used my 4" quilting ruler, it worked fine.) Cut the yarn off the skein with a 9" tail, wrap the tail a few times around the top of the loops and tie to secure. Cut the bottom of the loops to make a nice fluffy tassel.