We just threw a Disney Princess birthday party for my four year-old daughter. It was a lot of work, but it was so fun!
My daughter wanted all her guests to dress up in Disney attire, and asked if I would dress up as well. I asked her who I should be, and she answered, “Elena! You have a red dress!”
Elena is a fairly new (non-official) Disney Princess from the show Elena of Avalor on the Disney Jr. Channel. She is a guitar-playing, fiesty and adventurous ruler-in-training, and her world represents a multitude of Latina cultures. We love watching her show!
Normally, I would go all out on a costume, but I had a lot of other things to worry about- like hosting and pulling off a fun party with nine four year-olds. So even though my red dress didn’t have the pretty Spanish ruffles on it like Elena does, I figured if I just paired it with Elena’s trademark high, asymmetrical ponytail and floral hair accessory, it would work.
We needed to go to Hobby Lobby for some craft materials for the birthday party, so I figured I could also grab flowers to whip up a hair accessory for my simple costume.
The flowers that Princess Elena has in her hair are small and orange with yellow centers. I looked everywhere in the floral department and didn’t find anything that matched that exact description. I did find some orange flowers, though, and I thought they ended up looking cute once I was done with my hair accessory.
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Elena-Inspired Hair Accessory
You’ll need:
- 2 Sprigs of Small Orange Silk Flowers
- Hot Glue Gun
- Scissors
- Ruler
- 1 Alligator Hair Clip or hair comb
- Marker
- Metallic Gold Ribbon (1/4 inch thick)
- Adhesive Spray Glitter (optional)
*Note: The following measurements are for an adult-sized hair accessory. Simply cut the flower sprigs shorter if you are making an accessory for a child.
Step 1: On the first sprigs of flowers, measure 3 or 3 1/2 inches starting from the top of the flowers. Mark and cut.
Do the same on the second sprig, except measuring only 2 inches down.
Step 2: You’ll want to wrap part of the alligator clip with ribbon so you don’t snag dried hot glue in your hair. (Skip this step if you are using a hair comb.) To do this, open the alligator clip. Add a line of hot glue along the underside of the top part of the clip and another line of glue on the very top. Keeping the clip open, quickly press the ribbon (pretty side showing) on the glue, starting at the inside edge of the underside, and then wrapping the ribbon across the top of the clip.
Step 3: Add another line of glue on the very bottom of the clip. Continue to wrap the ribbon across the bottom. Let dry for one minute, then trim excess ribbon.
Step 4: Add a line of hot glue to the right half of the top of the clip or hair comb. Grab the longer sprig of flowers and press the stem to the glue, making sure the flowers point to the right. Once secure, add another line of glue to the left half of the clip. Press the shorter sprig of flowers to the glue, with the flowers pointing to the left.
Step 5: Elena’s hair accessory has one prominent flower in the middle. Cut off a flower (preferably a large one, and no stem on it) from the excess flowers you purchased. Glue it in the middle of the clip, hiding the stems of the other sprigs of flowers.
Step 6: To make the hair accessory sparkle, spray the flowers with adhesive glitter. If you don’t have spray glitter, you can dip a paintbrush in a little Mod Podge and lightly coat the flowers in the glue. Then carefully sprinkle some loose glitter (gold would look best!) onto the flowers and let dry.
Voila!
I didn’t have time to curl my ponytail the morning of my daughter’s party, but you get the idea! The hair accessory added a lot to my quick DIY costume. The flowers stuck out a little bit from my head when I first clipped the accessory to my hair, but it was nothing a bobby pin couldn’t fix. I’ll get you guys a better pic of it in my hair soon; I wasn’t looking so hot after a couple hours of hosting 🙂
We’d love to see how your Elena hair accessory turned out!
-Mariah
If you are crunched for time, you can purchase a beautiful Elena accessory set here! You can also grab her gorgeous tiara here (one of my favorite princess crowns!).