Mother’s Day Gift Idea – Custom Sun Hat

Do you remember Angelina Jolie’s wedding dress?  From her third marriage?  The one where the kids doodles were incorporated into the gown itself?

With this and Mother’s Day in mind, it got me to thinking of a neat Mother’s Day gift idea that the kids could do.  A crafty gift that I’d actually use…

like perhaps a sun hat?

The vacation doesn’t look too bad either, but let’s stick to a budget here.  The above hat sells for $92 Cdn on Etsy (click image for link to site), and I’ve seen others that have gone as high as $480 US but let’s face it, I don’t need a $480 hat for the backyard.

I wanted to combine the idea of an inexpensive sun hat and Branjelina’s dress into a neat idea for Mother’s Day.

I found this little cutie (granted, not great quality) at the dollar store:

I decided to see if I could make a sun hat similar to the one in the image above using a $3 hat and some Sharpie markers.

Since I didn’t have a lot of faith in my handwriting, and because the girls weren’t home to design it for me, I opted to go with a stencil.

Then I just coloured inside the lines with a Sharpie gold paint pen (which is an oil-based paint marker – not a regular Sharpie).

I wanted subtle, but this is a tad too faded so I chanced it and outlined my lettering with a regular black Sharpie.

This sun hat is a polyester/plastic sort of blend so if you use a cotton hat, remember that the ink will spread somewhat.

I know Sharpies bleed when touched with rubbing alcohol, so as long as I’m not wearing my hat while drinking and doing hand stands, I should be okay (fingers crossed – I love drinking upside down).

You need to use your imagination a bit here and visualize this idea, but in your child’s handwriting, or with doodles they’ve drawn all over it.

Useful, meaningful, inexpensive, handmade – checks all my boxes!

And it functions so well for reading on the patio, or gardening in the sun!

You’ll have to share this post with your Hubbies if you want them to take over and get the kids working on one for you, or you could take charge and have the kids make one for their Grandma/Nana/Oma/ Nona etc.

Paint pens run around $10 Cdn at craft stores, but if you use your coupon that cuts it down to about $6, or if you’re feeling confident that Grandma won’t be drinking upside down you could let the kids loose with regular Sharpies.

My new hat, a good book, a cup of tea and some sunshine – that’s what I call a perfect Mother’s Day!

Have a great one!

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• Between Naps on the Porch