Show and Tell Saturday: Superhero Mask Headbands

Today's Show and Tell project isn't super exciting or complicated, but that's one great thing about projects: they don't have to be huge to be counted a success. I'm one of the adult leaders at a 4 day Girls Camp next week...and I'm in the final throws of preparation. I'm really excited for camp. Our group has been doing a superhero theme all this year, so we're continuing that at camp (just to be fun and add unity). We made capes a few weeks ago, but I had a fun idea the other day for another fun and simple touch to the superhero theme. Superhero Mask Headbands. As part of the rules, we can't wear masks at camp (except for the skit we're doing, theatrical performances are the only exception to that rule), so I thought I'd make masks that the girls could use for their superhero skit, but then the first day when we show up in our capes, they can wear them as headbands. I didn't really find what I had in mind on Pinterest, so I just forged ahead and made it up as I went and I really like how they turned out. They ended up averaging to about $ .35 a mask...gotta love cheap and easy!

I didn't really have an exact plan in mind, so I just went to Walmart and wandered the craft aisle and found these awesome foam glitter sheets:

The colors our ward was assigned are white and gold. The capes are white, so I thought it'd be fun to have glittery, sparkly gold masks. This was perfect. So I bought 8 sheets (didn't know how many I'd need and they were cheap). 

I went to the classroom at work (I love having somewhere I can bring projects when I'm in town), and drew out a mask shape on a piece of regular printer paper and cut it out. This is what I used as my template to trace the masks on the back of the foam sheet. I just traced them with a pencil and it worked great. 

The next step was to cut them out. The scissors cut right through the foam easy-peasy. No problems there. 

Then it got to the straps. I first thought about cutting a slit in the mask and tying the ribbon on, but I didn't want there to be any risk of coming untied or ripping the foam. Plus I figured gluing it on would make it look better. But then it came to choosing the glue. I haven't had great luck with regular crafting glue on foam, so I decided to just use Gel Super Glue. This stuff was perfect. Definitely use the gel glue and not the liquid glue, it is much easier to control and not get all over and then you don't end up with your fingers glued together and ribbon permanently attached to your shirt. Once the glue is dried, the bond is awesomely strong. I think this is going to work great. 

Update: I chose to use ribbon rather than an elastic band for a few reasons. The ribbon was cheaper overall, easier to attach, and was more adaptable to the various head sizes and hair styles we have in the group. I thought about using elastic headbands and played with one at home before going to the store, and it was really uncomfortable and hard to keep in place when wearing it as a mask (which they'll do during the skit).

Next, I didn't want the ribbon to fray, so I pulled out the normal craft glue and dipped the ends in to try and seal the ribbon. Even though the glue said it was Quick Dry, it took forever. A lady at the store said next time to use clear fingernail polish. Genius idea!

Here you see the masks with the ribbons/glue drying:

And here's my lovely mug and how the masks turned out:

I'm pretty excited with how they turned out and I can't wait to give them to the girls. To make 16 masks it took me about an hour and a half from start to finish, so this is something that you can do small or large scale pretty easily.