With graduation right around the corner, it can be fun to add a little bit of personality to your graduation cap. While there are plenty of funny examples floating around the Internet, most of which just involve stickers, a UCLA-specific grad cap is hard to find. Below, you’ll find our DIY tutorial for a Royce Hall cap. It’s a fun and unique way to express your Bruin pride before you leave UCLA behind.
3. Remove the paper from the top of the grad cap, and draw a circle where you put the dot. The circle should be the approximate size of the knob on top of the cap. Be very careful with the size of the circle – if it’s too big, some of the black will show through.
4. Cut along the straight line carefully, and cut out the circle. Then slowly slide the paper onto the cap, fitting the circle around the knob.
5. On the back of the cardstock, tape the slit back together. That way, the paper can’t slide off your cap but the tape is not visible.
8. Using what’s left of the red cardstock, begin to trace arches of various sizes. Dark red arches will go on the light red portions of Royce Hall and vice versa. Looking at a picture of Royce Hall can be really helpful for this step, as it gives you a better idea of how many arches each side needs, since they’re not symmetrical. Once you’ve drawn all the arches, cut them out.
9. Now that you have all the arches, attach the basic Royce Hall structure to the blue base, using it to cover the line that you cut. Either glue or tape works. Next, attach the dark red rectangles over the sides of Royce Hall and then attach the arches carefully.
Optional Steps
10. Using the brown pen, draw some of the lines and smaller arches of Royce. This helps make the building look more detailed and realistic, but isn’t necessary if you want a more minimalist look.
11. Cut out a small rectangle of gold cardstock. Attach it above Royce Hall and outline it using the dark blue marker. Place a graduation-themed sticker of your choice onto the gold cardstock and a 2014 sticker below.
12. Add your tassel and put your cap on your head. Congratulations, you’re ready to graduate!