I have learned that making our own animal ears is one of the easiest and quickest projects I have ever done. It took me less than 20 minutes to make 6 different animals and all the party goers loved them. Totally worth it and I’ll definitely be making them again if we have a costume need for them!
These headbands were originally inspired for my daughter’s Littlest Pet Shop party we threw November 2014. They were quick, easy and all made from scrap felt from a previous project. My daughter told me what animal/Littlest Pet Shop character she wanted me to make ears for and we were able to figure out something. I am not an artist, but I think my ear shape creations turned out pretty good too! lol
Supplies Needed:
- Felt in desired colors
- Headbands
- Glue gun
- Cardstock or empty cereal box
- Marker or pencil
- Scissors
- Small lids to trace, if needed – Baby food jar size worked great
Directions:
Step 1: Gather all your supplies needed. I let my daughter direct the designing of the ears because she wanted to recreate Littlest Pet Shop animals so I pulled out a variety of felt sheets/colors I had from a quiet book activity book I made a few years ago. 
Step 2: Design the shape of the animal ear you would like to create. Fold your felt in half and trace the ear shape onto the felt, but leave about 1.5-2 inches open on the bottom where the fold is. This will be the part that will fit around the headband. If you are not comfortable with your skills, make sure to do it on paper first to get a desire stencil. For simple round ears, I found a baby food jar lid was the perfect size. 
Step 3: Trace the first ear to create a second. For bigger ears, like a bunny, trace the pattern of the ear onto an empty cardboard box and cut it out to reinforce the ears staying up. You will want to cut the bottom a little shorter than the ear so it does not interfere with the headband sliding into the bottom of the ear when you are finished gluing.
Step 4: Hot glue your ear together. Make sure to leave a gap at the bottom with no glue so you can easily slide the headband through the small gap. I played it safe with this part and added glue near the bottom if I needed the gap to be little tighter once we added the head band. 
Step 5: Cut centers for each ear out of a coordinating felt color to finish off the “animal ear” look. Hot glue it on and let it cool. Once all the glue is cool (which it won’t take long), slide the headbands through the ears and ENJOY!!!
The girls loved these ears and it is so fun to see them still playing with them almost a year later. Every now and then my niece will even pop over sporting her cat ears. Too cute!
*Photographs of the cute girls is the pure talent of Shannon
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