Chametz Hunt House - Easter Hat Parade

You may mistake this hat as the Easter Bunny's house, but that is far from reality. So without further ado, we present to you the Chametz Hunt House Easter Hat.

I didn't get around to sharing this Easter Hat we made for the Parade at school last year. It was close to not happening due to lock-downs, but it did go ahead, and parents were even allowed to watch. It was the first time I have been able to go to school for the Easter Hat Parade. I was able to take time off work for it because I have been permanent long enough to have some leave built up.

Anyway, it felt a bit weird sharing an Easter Hat too long after Easter, so I figured I would just keep it for this year and this year's hat can be shared next year too. It gives me a bit more time to get the blog post done.

After modifying the same paper mache hat we made for the last three years, it was time to make something new. The last three years were a sort of trilogy, with a prequel (Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet), the main event (Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet), and a sequel (Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet). 

I intend to do another trilogy of hats for the next three (although not re-using the same hat), but we'll see if Tahlia remains interested.

The foundation of Jesus death, burial and resurrection is presented in the Biblical feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First-fruits respectively. In anticipation of fleeing Egypt, the Israelites ate unleavened bread as instructed by God because they did not have time to wait for the yeast to rise. Yeast also represents sin as it causes dough to puff itself up (like pride) and so when God gave the instructions for commemorating the flight from Egypt in the festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were told to rid their homes of any yeast (Chametz in Hebrew) and yeast breads ahead of celebrating those feasts.

As part of the festivities, a game for the children developed called the Chametz Hunt. The mother cleans out the yeast products from the house, but hides 10 pieces or crumbs for the Dad to help the children find. They go on a hunt using a candle for light and when they find the crumbs, they use a feather to scoop the crumbs onto a wooden spoon and take them out of the house to be burned.

In a similar manner, we need to seek out our sins and get rid of them. Perhaps there are 10 pieces of bread to remind us of the 10 Commandments.

There are plenty of hiding spots on this hat to hide bread. Thankfully, I had made way too much bread to go into Pharaoh's Baker's baskets in our Genesis 40 - The Baker's and The Butler's Dreams Quiet Book Page so we used that to hide behind doors and windows. 

Tahlia sewed the windows and doors on. The completed roof was hot glued onto the walls rather than sewn. 

I think I sewed the walls and roof together. The chimney idea worked, which was a relief! I sewed the chimney together leaving about 1.5cm open at the bottom to fold out underneath the roof and sew down around the edges of the chimney hole in the roof.

At Tahlia's request, rather than securing it we made the hat to fit over the top of this felt St Patrick's Day Hat we had in our dress-up collection so it could still be used separately from the Easter Hat. I covered it in plastic food wrap to prevent any hot glue accidentally getting on the other hat while we were gluing the roof and things on.

We made a bin to burn the bread by covering a plastic shot glass I obtained from a supermarket sampling stand with some grey corduroy, securing it with hot glue. We scrunched up some red cellophane for the fire. 

We added pom pom bushes, a rik rak vine, and embroidered flowers as a decorative touch. They were all hot glued onto the side of the felt house rather than to the base St Patrick's Day hat.

Our fake battery-powered candle, toy wooden spoon, and feather all fit nicely into the chimney for storage.

We hope you will use our free Chametz Hunt House - Easter Hat Parade - Template Pattern to make your own version. It is a great way to help your kids share their faith in an exciting way. Why not seize the chance to develop their witnessing skills?

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Inspire us with your Christian themed Easter Hat ideas!

Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet

Although PanPanic ensured there was no Easter Hat Parade at school this year, they still held an Easter Hat Slideshow.

And we did our own parade at home.

Why we made the Butterfly Resurrection Easter Hat

As always we take the opportunity to both learn about Jesus' sacrifice and develop faith-sharing skills. I think it is important to practice sharing your faith from a young age. There are too many who shy away from proclamations - but I want to make sure Tahlia grows up to be bold and unashamed of the Gospel.

This year our Easter bonnet featured an empty tomb with a myriad of butterflies. Butterflies have long been a symbol of the resurrection because caterpillars seem to die in their cocoons and emerge shortly thereafter possessing a far superior body. We included so many butterflies as Jesus' resurrection gives us the reassurance that He is able to do the same for anyone who places their hope and trust in him.

Inside the tomb we see what Mary saw described in John chapter 20. I have heard that the angels sitting at either end of the stone where Jesus had been laid are supposed to remind you of the Ark of the Covenant which had two angels on top with their wings touching each other. On top of the ark between the angels was called the Mercy Seat and this was where the Shekinah Glory of God's presence shone. We tried to emulate this in a way, but the light was also supposed to give the impression of angels rejoicing and reflecting the angel-party mood I imagine was going on in Heaven despite the disbelief and grief on Earth.

How we made the Butterfly Resurrection Easter Hat

Two of my favourite butterflies

This video gives the basic gist of how we made the base of our butterflies from pipe-cleaners, although we did make a few changes. Next we wrapped the wings in lace and secured it with hot glue. We also added beads to the ends of their feelers. I knew we would need a lot, so we started making these well before Christmas, but even so we did get a bit of help from some friends to make so many. Tahlia hot glued all bar one of the little ones in place and did an excellent job don't you think?

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Butterfly Rings 

by One Little Project

We had one little one left over so she did wear it as a ring.

The large butterfly on top was also made from pipe-cleaners and wrapped in lace.

We started the layers from the outside edges first so that each layer overlapped the next without getting in the way.

This hat is the third in a series where we have re-used the same paper mache hat we made in Kindergarten.  After removing last years beautiful felt flowers we gave it a quick vacuum to remove the dust and debris.

This year we enclosed the arch/doorway from the last two years to form the empty tomb. We marked where we wanted the tomb to go to and used plastic shopping bags to pack the space to be filled. Then we covered that section with three or so more layers of paper mache before removing the shopping bags and covering from the inside as well.

We also marked the edge of the entrance to the tomb on paper and formed a base for the stone out of cardboard cereal box. This got covered with layers of paper mache too.

The tomb and stone were painted inside and out in white by Tahlia, and I touched up the sky and grass after the damage done by removing the felt flowers from last year.

I had been hoping to find a frosted plastic box in a jewelry store but had no luck. Happily, and perhaps Providentially, we attended a wedding a few weeks before the hat had to be finished. The wedding favours came in a perfectly sized white box with a transparent lid. I managed to take a photo for you with one chocolate left in there before they all got demolished. Each box had two chocolates inside originally!

After removing the divider, three LED rings fit exactly inside the box - we bought this 6 pcs LED Rubber Rings from AliExpress (not an afiliate link). I bought extra in case some did not work and I'm glad I did as all the rest broke very quickly. The box is fixed in place with blu-tak so it can be removed to allow the rings to be turned on and off.

The angels were bought from a craft store but I have seen similar in dollar stores too - they were hot glued in place.

See the other Easter Hats in this Trilogy

1. Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet - focuses on Praising Jesus' ability to save
2. Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet - focuses on the first Passover and the Cross
3. Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet - this one!

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I would love to see and share your Christian themed Easter Hats!

Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet

Last Year we set the bar for the remaining years of Tahlia's primary school Easter Hat Parades. I set myself the challenge of making an admirable Christian hat (no eggs or bunnies) that would be far from embarrassing and that would get people talking about the Good News of Easter, um, I mean Passover.

This year I hope we have again risen to the challenge with our Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet.

This idea came with one week to go before the event. Thankfully. I had planned something else, but it just didn't have the pizzazz I was looking for and I never ended up buying all the needed items.

My first job was to secure a stuffed toy lamb - and not a Shaun the Sheep look-alike. It had to be without blemish like all Passover lambs. Happily my workmates were in the know about an awesome nearby op shop and enthusiastically took me on a lunch-time shopping adventure. Praise God this little cutie was waiting for me!

The inspiration for the Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet came from the 10th Plague from the First Passover.

You realise a lot of things when you try to convert Bible text into images. Obviously others have realised it before me because I found some awesome pictures online that demonstrate what happened to the Israelite's doors when they followed God's instructions to kill a lamb and use hyssop to paint blood on the lintel and both doorposts as protection against the death of their first born sons (Exodus 12:22).

Image Source

Who knew there was so much imagery in the old testament around the cross?

Tahlia did get to show her hat to her class and talk about it. I'm not sure that what she said would have made a whole lot of sense to them, but it was good witnessing practice. And it was a wonderful learning experience for us to share together.

You might think that I made the hat, but let me reassure you, Tahlia helped a lot.

Most importantly, she proudly wore it on the day!

Together we stripped back the Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet from last year.

She stirred the paper mache glue mixture and applied another coat.

She re-painted the hat.

Tahlia insisted we iron the felt before making the flowers. A step I was thinking we might be able to skip.

She cut the pipe cleaners.

She cut the red, white and orange flower pieces out and even helped with hot gluing them all together.

I made the bunch of hyssop.

I rolled strips of red felt for the blood to fill the bowl and glued one end of the ribbon for the cross to it. I glued everything down - the ribbon to the screws and itself, the felt to the bowl and the bowl to the hat.

I used a small screw driver to make holes to insert the screws. I had planned on using nails but I couldn't find them. I think screws worked well anyway because they had a lip which stopped the ribbon slipping off.

Tahlia wanted to make a door for the archway but we ran out of time. I thought it would be better without, but I think Tahlia was right to want a door. It might have helped the ribbon cross stand out more.

She helped glue everything onto the hat.

So that the lamb was not ruined by hot glue I employed more felt and my secret weapon safety pins!

We watched quite a few YouTube videos on how to make felt flowers. These were our favourites:

• Flowers - Flowers with felt - How to make a rose by PapelyManualities
• DIY Felt Flowers - 5 Flowers and Leaves by The Daily DIYer
• Felt Flower Tutorial #2 - DIY : How to make easy felt flower / Spring Crafts - Kids Crafts . by Miss Tricks Mix DIY

If you can't work out how I made the pink carnations you will have to beg me to do a tutorial. I'm not planning to do it unless someone asks though!

EDIT:

See the other Easter Hats in this Trilogy

1. Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet - focuses on Praising Jesus' ability to save
2. Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet - this one!
3. Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet - focuses on the joy and hope of the Resurrection

Follow Faith and Felt Obsession on Facebook, Pinterest and You Tube

I would love to see and share your Christian themed Easter Hats!

Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet

In Australian primary schools it is very common to have a yearly Easter Hat Parade competition. Each child makes or decorates a hat at home to wear in the parade at school. I remember them when I was a kid.

Now that its my turn to supervise the hat making, as a Christian I couldn't bring myself to make a hat full of eggs or bunnies. In an effort to make the most of the opportunity, and try to teach Tahlia how to share her faith, we made a Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet.

When I told my friends I wanted to make a Christian themed Easter Hat, they all immediately thought of putting a cross on the front of a hat. Kinda morbid looking next to a bunch of brightly coloured and fun filled Easter Hats. Of course I didn't want to embarrass Tahlia, and it's probably not the greatest method of convincing people that the Christian movement is something they should join either!

I think we came up with a hat that is equally bright and rivals the fun of any Easter Hat I've seen.

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I would love to see and share your Christian themed Easter Hats!

It is made of painted paper mache molded over a hat and bucket. We made the rim and Jerusalem gateway arch out of aluminium foil, and paper mache over the top. The sign saying "Welcome to Jerusalem" is made from a painted pop stick and marker, and is hung with some elastic and hot glue. 

The battery operated car and track are from one of Tahlia's toys. Jesus on the donkey and the crowd are finger puppets copied and laminated from the book Bible Stories by Twin Sisters Productions, 2005. We used plain old sticky tape to attach them to the hat (and car so Jesus can actually ride the donkey). And as you might have guessed we used felt and hot glue to make the palm tree trunks (and a cardboard hand towel roll for the top one). She wanted the tall one on top because there was a 'Tallest Hat' category. The palm branches are also felt hot glued around some pipe cleaners. They can be taken out and laid on the road or waved around while shouting "Hosanna!"

This hat was inspired by a quiet book page which I am yet to post on the blog. When I do, I'll put a link to the post so you guys can get the template for the palm leaves.

We had a great time making the hat together. Stay tuned for the next few years to see what else we come up with, and if you have any suggestions or requests, please let us know in the comments below!

EDIT:

See the other Easter Hats in this Trilogy

1. Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet - this one!
2. Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet - focuses on the first Passover and the Cross
3. Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet - focuses on the joy and hope of the Resurrection

Follow Faith and Felt Obsession on Facebook, Pinterest and You Tube

If you have ideas for more Christian themed Easter Hats please let me know in the comments below!