Golden Birthday Crown and Badge

The last time I visited my sister, we had a "top secret" project to work on.  Her grandson (my great-nephew) was about to have his Golden Birthday (6 on the 6th) and we wanted to create a golden crown to make the day more special for him.

I brought along a big jar of gems in assorted sizes and we spent some time sorting them and deciding which colors would look best on the gold crown.   My sister has the Cricut Create (I "enabled" her into buying it a couple of years ago) and I brought along my Gypsy to give us plenty of cartridge options.

I created the crown by welding a border shape from the Elegant Cakes cartridge to a rectangle.  For the base layer, we chose DCWV metallic cardstock and then added the top layer cut from Core'dinations Core Couture glittered cardstock. 

I cut some additional strips of the metallic gold cardstock with a paper trimmer to make the sides and back of the crown.  We added a strip of glitter cardstock about 1/4 inch tall and placed  some extra ovals over the side joins to strengthen the connection.  To further stabilize the band, I added some strips of plain cardstock with lots of adhesive so the band would bend smoothly.

In addition to the crown, we made a birthday badge.  The shape is from the Fontopia cartridge and we cut another glitter strip to run along the top of the badge.  Ben's younger brother will turn 8 on the 8th in a few years so we decided to go ahead and make two badges in the hopes that the crown would survive to be worn again(!).  The "6" is from the Fontopia cartridge and the "8" is from Plantin Schoolbook.

The badge and the crown were a hit - here is a photo of the birthday boy.  He even had the day off from school since it was a teacher inservice day in their district.   I hope he'll remember his "special" birthday when he is older.  I still remember my Golden Birthday when I turned 10 on the 10th.  My mother decided to give me a gift every hour and she even set a clock to ring each hour to remind us.  (The presents were things like a bottle of nail polish, a card of barrettes - just little things but it was the thrill of having a gift every hour that made it special and memborable).

There are some predesigned crowns on some of the cartridges but I wanted to show you that it is pretty simple to come up with your own design by using a border shape and making a few welds.  I used Scor-Tape to hold everything together and to adhere the gems to the crown.  I haven't heard yet if the crown survived the entire day without losing any gems!


We are expecting another big storm and it is getting very cold here.  Dad was discharged from the hospital and is back in the rehab section for some more physical therapy.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers for him.  Does anyone want to make a birthday card for his 88th birthday on November 17th?  If you do, please let me know so I can send you his address - thanks!


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