DIY Paper Towel Roll Mini Top Hats

I had an empty paper towel roll and a vision to turn it into mini top hats. Oh. My. Gosh. They came out even more adorable than I ever could have anticipated. You need to make them. Now. Right now. Just unroll your paper towels. Spill milk all over the kitchen and wipe it up. Whatever you have to do to get your hands on an empty paper towel roll, do it. Then make these.

Paper Towel Roll Mini Top Hats

What You'll Need:

• Empty paper towel roll
• Black spray paint
• Black card stock
• Colored card stock
• Glue
• Paper trimmer
• Ruler 
• Pencil
• Scrap paper
• Scissors or X-Acto knife

What You'll Do:

Set down a piece of scrap paper, then spray paint the paper towel tube black. Wait about five minutes and give it a second coat. I do this in the woods behind our house so that if I accidentally spray too much the smell goes into the air, not into our home.

Measure your paper towel tube and make markings to split the tube into five pieces. My tube was 11 inches, so I made four of then 2.25-inches and the fifth was 2-inches.

Using scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut along the pencil marks. I wouldn't suggest folding the tube to cut it because you don't want that crease. Instead, carefully score around the tube, then cut deep enough to get a blade of your scissor in and cut around. Or just use an X-Acto knife. If I had one handy, I think that would have been easier.

If your cuts are a little jagged, cut off any "hangings" with your scissors.

Take your pieces back outside and give them another coat of spray paint. That will remove any discoloration (or, really, gaps that formed when the paint fell off from cutting).

Make a circle on the black card stock that's the size of your paper towel roll. Cut it out.

Measure and cut a large circle from your black card stock. I eyeballed mine, but if you're looking for measurements, mine is 2.5-inches in diameter.

Measure and cut a smaller circle from your colored card stock. I eyeballed this one too, but it's about 1 and 7/8ths of an inch.

Cut a small strip of the colored card stock. Mine was .25-inch by five inches. 

Now that all our components are cut, it's time to assemble.

Glue around one of the tube's edges and affix the first circle you cut (the one that's the same size as the tube). Let it dry. We'll be calling this the "closed" end from now on and the opposite side of the tube is the "open" end.

Glue the colored strip of paper around the "open" end of your paper towel tube. Let it dry.

Glue the colored circle down in the center of the large black circle. Let it dry.

Don't worry that mine isn't solid. I had a different idea originally for this (I thought I might slide it over the tube so I needed a hole, but I decided against that).

Glue around the "open" end of the tube and affix it to the blue circle. Allow the whole thing to dry overnight and you've got mini cardboard top hats. 

BRIDAL BABBLE: What would you use these paper towel roll mini top hats for?