{DIY} Queen of Hearts Scepter

Lil Miss (or Lil Diva as we like to call her when she gets demanding) loves to ask for my help in choosing a costume for Halloween.  Having been that kid who went shopping for costumes late due to monetary constraints growing up, I always ended up with a costume that wasn't my first choice.  I vowed when I became a parent, I would make sure my children would always have their first choice costume.  I am "that" parent that sets out to purchase her child's costume in late August.  Lil Man was easy....he wanted to be Captain America.  His only request...."I don't want to be the muscly one mom.....just a plain comfortable costume."  Fine, I appeased him, much to my dismay.

Finding the perfect costume for Lil Miss is so much fun!  I scour through the endless costume choices online and then bring my selection to her for the final verdict.  This year?  She will be a cute and girly Queen of Hearts. She and I both looked online at the props and saw this one. 

We loved it.  What we didn't love was the price.  $20?!!? plus shipping for a ribbon decorated dowel with cards? No way.  I looked at Lil Miss and told her, I can make this for at least half the price.  Lucky thing Lil Miss reminded me she needed her prop on Monday....I ran out to the store to purchase the necessary items.

A lot of the consumables (glues, trimmers, heart punch, glitter glue, white acrylic paint, red and black cardstock) I already had at home.  I ended up purchasing: Dowel, deck of cards, Red, Black, white ribbon (didn't end up using the white), and gold ornate jewelry.

 

How Did I Do It?

*I started off by painting the wooden dowel white. *Since the center of the gold ornate jewelry was blue, I used my red glitter glue to change it to a more appropriate red.  *I removed the Jack, King, & Queen of Hearts cards out of the deck and adorned the hearts and the letters with red glitter glue as well.  *I let them dry overnight to insure they had dried thoroughly.  *Next morning, I hot glued the red ribbon candy cane style around the white dowel. *I adhered the black ribbon around the bottom where she will hold it from.  *I then took the red wire ribbon and tied a bow to where the black ribbon meets the white dowel portion.  *I secured it from unraveling with a dot of hot glue.  *Once that dried I attached the now red centered gold ornate jewelery to the center of the bow. * I attached the King and Jack off centered to the back of the dowel, and then adhered the Queen centered to the front of the dowel. * Finally, I added the framed red heart to the bottom of the Queen of Hearts card where it meets the dowel.

And this is the final product:

 

My $8 take on the Queen of Hearts Scepter.