Friday, October 7, 2011

How To Make A Rapunzel Crown/Tiara!



The really cool thing about the crown/tiara is that it can be made almost entirely from materials found at your local craft store.  The only thing I had to find online were those large tear shaped crystals.  And guess what?!  I'll give you the link directly to the site so you don't even have to hunt them down.

To begin! The list of materials you will need:

Craft foam (the sheets you find a craft stores that can come in many different colors.  They run about $.99 a sheet. I went with white.)
Mod Podge
Gold acrylic paint
Those little foam brushes (again, very cheap) to apply said mod podge and gold paint
Craft/jewelry wire (the thickest gauge you can find)
X-acto knife
Cutting board
Hot glue
Poster board (you can probably use paper, but I need something more sturdy)
Lots and lots of bling (clear crystals, red/pink crystals, a few blue crystals, and some faux pearls)

Step #1

Make your stencil!  Using the movie as a reference, draw out how you want the crown to look (this is where you use the poster board). Use your large crystals to trace the holes that will hold them. You want them to fit snugly. Keep in mind, you'll end up cutting the crown out a few times, so it's important that it is consistent.  I made the stencil as only half a crown, since you can just flip it over and voila! A symmetrical crown. Your x-acto knife will be your best friend in this project.  There just no way to do this easily without one.

Side note - At this point figure out the large you want the diameter of your crown to be and cut the stencil accordingly.


Step #2

Use said stencil to trace and cut out two crowns out of craft foam.  I ended up needing to use three, but my large crystals were a bit too large and heavy, so it caused the crown to sag a bit.  Buying smaller crystals should fix that problem.


Step #3

Hot glue is definitely the best thing to use here as it will not come detached unless you actually rip the foam.  I, unfortunately, do not have a picture of step #3.  It somehow got deleted, so bear with me.

Use your craft wire to reinforce one of the crowns you just cut out, especially around the area that will be holding the large crystals and the thin part that will be sitting on your head.  Unfortunately, I bought wire that was too thin, so I twisted pieces together to give it more strength.  Use the hot glue to attach the wire to the crown.

When you feel your crown in sufficiently reinforced, glue the second crown cut-out to the first, making sure it conceals the wire you just attached. You don't wan that wire showing. Hot glue the ends of the crown together to make a proper crown and gently form it into a circle.  You may need bend it a bit here and there to get the wire to the desired shape.

Step #4

Mod podge the hell out of the crown! If you do not put enough mod podge on the crown, the gold paint will not look good as the foam will absorb it.  I ended up using 5 or 6 layers of mod podge.  Do your best to get it into all the nooks and crannies of the crown.  The mod podge will also add some rigidity to your crown while also remaining flexible.


(You can actually see a little bit of wire here in the back where I messed up)

After you are done using mod podge and the crown is dry, you can GENTLY use some super fine sand paper to smooth it out a little bit.

Step #5

You've got the Midas touch! So shiny... You may need two layers of paint. Just let it dry then touch it up.


Step #6

Now for the best part. Bring on the bling!  I glued on all the small crystals and pearls using the mod podge.  It worked well and dried flat and clear.  I used super glue for the large crystals. I put the crystals in place and glued around the edge.  I ended up needing to scrape up some excess, but it worked well.

(Partially bling'ed)


And finished!


You may be asking yourself, "Hey, she said she'd let me know where to buy the tear-shaped crystals!"

Hold your horses, you can find them here:


The crystals are actually chandelier replacement parts!  I used one 3" prism and two 2 1/2" prisms.  If I did this again, I would definitely get smaller prisms as they were just a little too big.  It would be nice if my crown was a bit more delicate looking.  They also made the crown a tad front heavy.

If anything was unclear, I would be more than happy to clarify.

Also, please feel free to share this, but if you post it elsewhere, I just ask you place a link back to here.
Thanks for looking!

24 comments:

  1. Awesome!!Thanks for the tutorial! <3

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  2. No problem! I glad you like it. If you end up making one, send me a pic and I'll post it. :)

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  3. Is there any way you can post a tutorial of making the tiara out of wire instead of foam? Or do you not know if it's possible to do that?

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  4. Hmmmmm, well I have definitely seen it done before, so I know it's possible. But I'm not working on any princesses for a while and working with wire is usually outside my expertise. My advice would be to go to the library and find a book about making wire jewelry. I would imagine with a little practice, it could be adapted to making a crown. The gems I used would probably lend themselves to this well since they actually have a little hole from which they hang off chandeliers (when not in crowns ;-) ).

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  5. Hi Leslie,

    Thanks for the response. I've seen people online making it with wire too so I know it's possible but sadly none of them are willing to share how they did it.

    I used to make jewelry but I wasn't good at it and I never used wire at all. I really don't think I'm up to doing this on my own with no tutorials when it comes to wirework which is hard enough for regular jewelry much less a tiara. But I appreciate your response nevertheless. Thanks.

    Do you think the people at Disney cosplay forum at cosplay.com would know how to do this or have any ideas? I've been lurking there and was wondering if I should ask.

    Thanks again.

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    1. I know this is years later....but I thought this was a good wire crown tutorial! You'd just have to modify the swirls a little to get that rapunzel look.
      http://happyhourprojects.com/diy-princess-tiara/

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  6. The people are cosplay.com are generally responsive and happy to help if they can. I've actually asked them for help in the past (my user name is Leslie2004). Don't limit yourself to the Disney forum. You can post questions to the cosplay tutorial forums as well. Another great website for costuming help is the www.therpf.com. Some of the members of that site make some truly amazing costumes.

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  7. Thanks again, Leslie. I'll definitely check out the roleplay website you suggested.

    Btw I'm not interested in making the actual costume but I found a great video tutorial for making the Rapunzel costume online if you or anyone else is ever interested. This lady is British I think and she makes tons of costumes. I think she made the wig herself too (she's very soft spoken so a little hard to understand but the costume she made is amazing):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9kM9gFyVRI

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  8. Thanks for the tutorial! It was a HUGE help for me:D

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  9. I really wish we had a picture of step 3 I'm horrible with comprehending words DX But thank you for the tutorial I can't wait to try this!

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    1. Yeah, sorry about that. I swear I took a picture but it somehow managed to get deleted. You are basically just using a thick gauge craft wire to reinforce the back of the crown. It'll will be sandwiched between your layers of craft foam, so it wont be seen. Just bend it around the crown as much as possible, especially where the large crystals are going to be.

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    2. Oh yes cameras do the strangest thing. But no worry it's not your fault!
      So it's kind of like a sandwich basically? You stencil out 2 identical foam outlines of the crown, lay down one, bend the wire to match certain areas of the crown which will bear weight, and sandwich it between the other layer of crown? Ok sandwich. I can make a crown sandwich. That sounds about right yes?

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    3. Haha. Sounds like you've got it. :) Send a picture of your crown when your done. Or feel free to email me if you ever have more questions. Always happy to help.

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    4. Oh you're so sweet! I will, plus this does sound very fun! Off I go to Micheals now! You're very helpful, and thank you for replying!

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  10. I have purchased all of my supplies, but I was hoping you could post the template for the tiara, please . It looks like the tiara is actually two parts, the top, which includes the large "chandelier" parts, and then the bottom. Am I correct? Any additional tips would be greatly appreciated! By the way, fantastic job :)

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    1. Hi. I unfortunately don't have the template anymore. I sketched it based on screen shots from the movie. Also, I'm not I totally understand your question. The crown is one piece as you can tell from the first and second picture. I glued on a few extra pieces of craft foam where I felt the crown needed more depth. Also, my template wouldn't really work for you anyway. You need to trace around your teardrop shaped stones to make sure they fit snuggly and securely. Let me know if you still have questions. I'll do my best to answer them.

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    2. Thank you, I know see the bottom piece I was looking at was the extra foam used for reinforcement. I'm going to get started soon, I'll be sure to send you a picture of my completed tiara. Wish we luck!

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  11. I want to say thank you sooooo much for your tutorial! It's awesome!! My daughter is going to have a beautiful tiara to go with her Rapunzel costume this halloween! As for a template for others to use, disney has a printable one: http://family.go.com/printables/article-1018734-tangled-printable-rapunzel-crown-t/

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    1. I'm so glad you found it helpful! And thanks for posting the template. Using that was a great idea.

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  12. Could you possibly make a PDF of the stencil you used? Thanks

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  13. Love this! One question! Is it foam board you use (stiff) or craft foam (flexible)??

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  14. Thank you so much for your tutorial. I was able to make a King Monkey (for our youth civic theatre group's production of The Jungle Book) crown from this! :-)

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