The 'Boy' In The Hat Knows A Lot About That (Tutorial)

My preschooler loves to watch The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That on PBS, so the other day when he wanted to make a craft, we thought it would be fun to dress him up as The Cat in the Hat.  So today in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, which was yesterday (things got busy around here), I thought I'd show you how we turned an oatmeal canister into a little boys dream hat.

What you'll need:

• Oatmeal canister
• Heavy duty paper plate
• Elastic (1/2")
• Stapler
• Clear packing tape
• Red construction paper and white heavy card stock
• Pen

 Directions:

• Trace around the oatmeal container in the center of the plate and cut the circle out.  It's best to cut it just smaller than the line you drew so the canister will fit snugly in place.
• Cover an oatmeal container with white card stock paper and tape in place.
• Cut three strips of red construction paper and tape in place.
• Tape the canister to the paper plate with clear packing tape.
• Carefully cut slits in the canister for the elastic to thread through.  Adjust the elastic to fit snugly under the chin.  Remove the hat and staple the elastic.

I took a small scrap of vinyl and cut a little black nose and whiskers with a pair of scissors.  He wore them for quite awhile before they lost their stick and I needed to cut another set.  The bow tie was made from construction paper.

My sister used this fun free on-line photo editing site where you can take any picture and turn it into a cartoon drawing and turned him into a real cartoon Cat in the Hat.  It was the icing on the cake, he was thrilled! 

It would be easy to hang up a white sheet, take some pictures, and then turn them into a cartoon to illustrate a child's very own book, to use for an invitation, make into a comic strip, to frame and hang in a child's bedroom, or to try it just for fun!

A children's book could be titled "The Boy/Girl In The Hat Knows A Lot About That".  Each page could have a picture of something that they can do.  For ex.--The boy (or use their name) knows a lot about drawing a picture, shooting a basketball, riding a bike, making cookies, etc.   It would be a way of celebrating and acknowledging their accomplishments.   You could print the pictures on 4x6 photo paper and put them in a small photo album or laminate them (or not), punch three holes, and add D-rings to hold the pages together (making it easy to add new photos).  What do you think? 

The name of the site is called befunky.com if you'd like to give it a try.    I don't know very much about it, but it has a lot of features and I hope to spend some more time there checking everything out. 

Today's Fabulous Find...befunky.com