Recently, I was asked by one of our large (and favorite) Event Planning Companies in SF to design a craft for an event at a Brazilian restaurant.  Given the restaurant we wanted to create something that reflected Brazilian culture. It need to be fun, festive and colorful - a sort of “Carnival” feel.  Our budget was slightly limited so I turned to my beloved Dollar Tree for inspiration.   That’s where I spied these inexpensive “tiaras”, basically a foil headband with a cardboard back.  The best thing about them is they fit most heads, and the cardboard backer makes a great base for gluing flowers, feathers, and ribbon.

Dollar Tree always has an awesome array of faux florals. Depending on the season, you can find everything from carnations (which make great fluffy fillers) to sunflowers.  You can also find ribbon, feathers, jewels, sticky backed gems, butterflies, and more.  With a little hot glue, and some imagination, you can create off-the-hook headdresses.  

My team and I had the most fun helping the guests express their inner child, as most were like kids in a candy store. They ooh'ed and ahh'ed over all the supplies.  The cardboard base of the tiara was perfect for feathers and jewels. The band was the best platform for ribbon.  With a little bunching the ribbon took on this amazing ruffled look and took the plastic band to a whole new level.

My favorite part of the night was when all the restaurant staff started sidling over.  Given that they were working, they weren’t able to spend time creating their own wearable art. So they picked out supplies and put in orders.  By the end of the evening, the entire staff was dressed to kill.  In just a few short hours we had created our own mini-Carnival, right there in downtown San Francisco!

No need to travel all the way to Rio or New Orleans for your next Carnival - all you need is a trip to the Dollar Tree, a glue gun….oh...and maybe a mojito.