How To Make A Paper Graduation Cap (Fun 10 Minute Craft) (2024)

Summer is basically here because it’s graduation season! I’m super proud of my kids’ academic growth this year. My oldest is graduating from virtual kindergarten so I wanted to do something special and made this fun graduation cap craft for us. I figure we might even make it a yearly tradition.

The craft itself is fairly simple and requires materials you’ll likely have at home anyway. I’ve put together step-by-step instructions and pictures below as well as a template.

• Graduation Cap Template (below)
• Cardstock Paper for Cap (traditional colors are Black, Blue, White, or Red)
• Construction Paper for Tassel (we used yellow)
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Tape

First, let me state that there are two measurement options for creating this cap. One is by measuring by hand, as I did. And the second is by following the template I have created for you. Sign up below to get it by email.

I will explain both in more detail below. But first, the basic instructions:

The first step in making your graduation cap craft is to cut out your square Cap Base, two Cap Strips, Tassel Clip, and Tassel. I chose black for my graduation cap and yellow for the tassel.

Next, you’ll glue the tassel and tassel clip (I honestly have no idea what it’s really called) to the center of your cap base, or square.

The two cap strips will need to be attached. By overlapping them you can either glue them or tape them. I preferred to tape them because glue often comes apart when bending paper.

Then you will need to fold the top piece of your strips all the way across, as this will be the lip that will attach to the cap.

After folding it down, pull it back up to form a 90-degree angle and cut triangle shapes across the lip. This does not need to be perfectly measured but it will allow your strip to bend and form more easily.

Next, you will need to form the strip into a ring and connect the ends with tape or glue.

The final step is to glue the lip of the cap strip to the bottom center of the cap base. Congratulations, you have a paper graduation cap!

I promised I’d explain myself. After making this craft myself I wanted to create a template to make it easier for you guys so I included all the parts needed in the file. However, you have the option of simply measuring out your own parts, especially the square, rectangles, and maybe even the circle. The tassel is more of a tricky shape.

So if you choose to follow the template, you will have an 8″x8″ cap with two 2.5″x9.75″ cap strips. But if you prefer to measure by hand, you can simply use the standard paper dimensions (at least in the US) and have an 8.5″x8.5″ cap. Then you can either use the remaining 2.5″x8.5″ for one of the strips and cut out a 2.5″x11″ strip or cut out two 2.5″x11″ strips.

If this confused you and I’ve just sent you back to geometry class, I’m sorry, just ignore this part and refer to the template.

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