Use lace and a touch of gold paint to create a regal "gilded" crown for a homemade Halloween costume or dress-up anytime. This beautiful crown would perfectly complete any royal homemade Halloween costumes, including princesses. Kids can help make the crown for their own costume or as a fun activity anytime. A smaller crown would work as decoration for a fairy or doll house or even as a tree ornament.

Materials:
- Lace
- gold acrylic paint
- gold leafing powder
- modpodge
- scissors
- paintbrushes
- wax paper
- (optional) hair dryer
Instructions:
- Take your lace and make a crown shape. The laces I used have one flat side. That really helps the structure. The width of the lace and the pattern will help you determine the size of your crown.

- Trim lace to size with a 1/2 inch or more overlap, matching pattern.

- Paint with gold acrylic paint. Be sure to cover all surfaces. Paint both sides of the lace.Let dry. You may want to do more coats of gold paint. I mixed an iridescent gold and a flakier gold for a deeper look.


- Place on wax paper.

- Coat with ModPodge until well saturated. I recommend you seal with, at least, 3 more coats of Modpodge. Move it around while its really wet, to keep the holes in the lace from becoming windows.

- Enhance the color with gold leafing powder dabbed onto wet Modpodge with dry brush. You can skip this step, but I really think it makes all the difference.

- Dry completely flat. A hair dryer can speed the process. Brush dry crown with a dry brush to remove excess leafing powder. Peel off of the wax paper.

- After all of ModPodge dries, use craft glue to attach the ends of the lace together to form the crown.

- Pinch ends with fingers until set, wait overnight, until dry. If this crown will see heavy use, some stitches on a sewing machine might also be a good idea.

- Place crown on head and have fun storming the castle.

Find more great crafting ideas at Bitter Betty Blogs.