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This month you get three in one. I'll show you how to make a Spring Bonnet, but in the process it goes through three steps. It begins as a crown, changes to a drum and then finishes as a colorful flower hat.
You will need both #260 and #160 balloons for the Spring Bonnet. Choose the colors to suit your taste. Begin by making a 6-bubble loop. Fully inflate a #260 balloon except for about 3 inches and tie off the nozzle. Twist off six 4-1/2" long bubbles and tie the ends together to form a loop. Cut off and discard the excess balloon. This becomes the headband for the bonnet. If the child's head is small, you will need to reduce the bubble sizes.
Inflate a #160 fully except for about 3-1/2" and tie off the nozzle. Twist off a 1/2" bubble and ear twist it. Twist off bubbles in this order, 4", 1/2", 4" and 1/2". Ear twist the two 1/2" bubbles. Twist-connect the first 1/2" ear twist to one of the joints on the headband. Twist-connect the third 1/2" ear twist to an adjacent joint. Position all of the 1/2" ear twists on the headband to be on the outer edge.
If you were making a crown, you would have just completed one of the crown's points. Make the second point of the crown by twisting off bubbles in this order, 4", 1/2", 4" and 1/2". Ear twist the two 1/2" bubbles. Then twist-connect the last one to the headband. Continue all around the headband until you have made 6 crown points. By the way, you will need to use a second #160 to make all 6 points. One #160 isn't enough to make all 6 points. This completes the crown shape.
To make the crown into a drum, make another 6-bubble loop like the headband from a #260 balloon. Twist-connect the six 1/2" ear twists on the crown's points to the joints of the second 6-bubble loop. Now it looks like a drum.
To convert it to a Spring Bonnet, all you have to do is add small flowers at each 1/2" ear twist on both 6-bubble loops. That will be a total of 12 flowers. I like to make a 5-petal flower from a white #160. Each bubble of the petal is 4" long. In the photo I used an orange #160 for the center of each flower. It is a 1/2" apple twist. I use the tail from the apple twist to attach the flower to the spring bonnet.
Another Type of Spring Flower Hat
