In part two of my series showing you how to make cute, cheap, and customizable crafts for the cute girls in your life, I'll show you how to make whimsical crowns out of pipe cleaners and any decorative odds-and-ends you fancy. (By the way, if you'd like to learn to make felt banners, check that out here). While these are excellent to make for your friends (or yourself) to wear on birthdays, I've found they have a lot of other uses as well. I first learned how to make these bad boys when I realized I'd neglected to bring my plastic children's tiara that I used to wear to work on my birthday to college. I didn't consider the numerous uses for such an item, like a Homecoming themed party, for instance.

Armed with a hot glue gun (one thing I did think to bring to college), an intense passion for DIY, and a commitment to being the tackiest homecoming queen since the late 80s, I set out to make my own tiara. Ever since, I've been whipping these up for friends' birthdays and all sorts of other occasions. If you're wondering where you could possibly wear a homemade tiara, the answer is wherever you damn-well please. I personally enjoy sporting my vast array of DIY crowns to parties (regardless of theme) but you can also wear them to formal events to add a touch of personality and let everyone know you're simultaneously taking the occasion way too seriously and not seriously at all, to sporting events in your school's colors, or just in your everyday life. They're an excellent way to start a conversation and to let everyone know that you're regal but like, in a fun way.

Here are the steps to making your very own pipe-cleaner crown!

1. Gather your materials:

Pipe-cleaners and a hot glue gun are really the only musts in this situation. I like using pom poms, googly eyes, and acrylic gems to decorate my crowns but items like stickers, beads, and silk flowers are great options too!

2. Make your base

Twist the ends of two pipe-cleaners together to make the base for the rest of your crown. Do this based upon how you would like the crown to sit on your head. I like mine a little bigger so it can sit lower and stay put!

3. Construct the crown

This part is just as customizable as the decorations. Bend the pipe-cleaners in any shape you want! For this crown I did more rounded shapes, but you can also do pointed, triangular pieces or twisted and curled shapes. Make a tiara with the decorative part in the front, or a crown with the shapes encircling your head. Experiment with layering and overlapping, with width, height, and symmetry. Make sure to cut the pieces you're using a little longer than you want them to be so you have enough to affix it to the base by twisting it. When you're done, hot glue the overlapping parts together so they don't come apart while you wear it.

4. Decorate!

This is the fun part that requires little instruction. Hot glue anything you'd like to your crown! Add feathers, plastic gems, ribbon, or even cut out photos. Here's a few previous crowns modeled by my friends and I that I've made using materials like tinsel, glittery foam shapes, and glass tile letters.