Instructions

1. Grab a piece of paper and make yourself a crown shaped template. I folded my paper in half, then quarters, then eighths to get even divisions to make sure my crown peaks were evenly sized. But you can also do that with a pencil and ruler. I recommend making the middle front peak taller than the others so you can fit a number on the front
2. Cut out the paper crown template
3. Use the paper crown template to cut two crown shapes from your felt in two different colors. (If you used regular printer paper, your template will be 11 inches wide and your felt will be 12 inches wide, just center the template across the felt and add an extra half inch on either side when you cut it out. )
4. The two colored crown shapes will be the opposite sides of your reversible crown. Decorate each one, attaching your decorations with small dabs of hot glue. I put a strip of contrasting felt along the bottom of each.
5. Then I chose to add tiny pom pom trim to one side (don't use big pom poms or they'll feel weird when your little one is wearing the other side)
6. And I used rick rac trim on the other
7. Don't forget to add some felt "jewels"
8. When both sides of your crown are completed, use hot glue to attach them first along the top edge. Make sure things are lining up, then glue in the middle and along the bottom edge. Do not glue along the two short sides yet!
9. Before you glue the short sides cut about 6" of elastic. You want this crown to fit your kids for a long time so you need to make it big enough for your big kids. When your little ones wear it, you can tie the elastic in a knot to temporarily make it shorter! Insert one end of the elastic between the layers of the crown, near the bottom, as shown. Then glue the short sides. Repeat with the other end of the elastic and the other short side of the crown.
10. Use a needle and thread to tack the ends of the elastic between the layers of felt. If you use small stitches, you will barely see this at all, but DO NOT skip this step. Hot glue will not be strong enough to hold that elastic in place year after year as your kids stretch it out!
11. Finally, cut out some numbers from another color of felt. I free-handed the numbers but you could make a template by typing the numbers 0-9 in a word processing document and printing them out large and then cutting and tracing onto your felt. (You might be tempted to just cut out the number you need this year thinking you can just cut the next number next year. Just don't. Use your momentum and get it done. You'll be so glad next year when you're busy and it's all ready to go!)
12. To attach the numbers to the crown each year, you can add a teeny tiny piece of hook and loop aka Velcro (the scratchy side!!) to the back of each number, that will make them stick to the crown. Or you can do what I did and just use a little strip of double sided tape to attach that year's number and remove the tape when you're done. It only needs to stick on there for an hour or so, so that worked just fine and was easy. Store your reversible crown and all the extra numbers in a large ziploc bag with any other birthday decorations!