Whether you’ve been counting down the days until you get your diploma or are dreading the moment that you enter into the real world, there’s no denying graduation is right around the corner. That includes having last hoorahs with friends and celebrating the best four years of your life.
While everyone will be dressed in the same cap and gown on the big day, you can be sure to stand out by decorating the top of your graduation cap. Decorating your graduation cap is the perfect opportunity to showcase your personality (and make sure your parents can easily scope you out during the ceremony.)
Here at Spoon, we prefer cheesy pizza over cheesy quotes. So, to make sure your last days as a senior are as stress-free as possible, I made a list of my favorite food-inspired DIY graduation cap ideas to serve as inspiration.
1. Through Thick and Thin Crust
If this doesn’t describe your college experience, then you didn’t eat enough pizza. Pizza was always there when no one else was. It’s super easy to honor this cheesy companion on your graduation day. All you have to do is print out a picture of the perfect pie and grab some white letter stickers from a craft store!
2. Only the Good Stuff
Everyone knows the saying, “you are what you eat,” so take a fun spin on it for your graduation cap with this quote from Disney’s Ratatouille. College is full of eating good (and let’s admit it, not so good) stuff, so celebrate it all with this cap inspired by Remy. Grab some construction paper and food stickers for the background, then spell out the quote in letter stickers. Print out a picture of the Eiffel Tower and the adorable Remy, and you’re all set!
3. Diploma Runs on Dunkin’
If you tell people you got through four years of college without coffee, you’re lying. America runs on Dunkin’, and so does your diploma. Show your love for the coffee chain and the endless supply of caffeine that helped you get through all those all-nighters in the library by decorating your graduation cap with the classic Dunkin’ Donuts logo. You can either print out the logo or make it yourself using orange and pink construction paper. If you want to get creative, use a real Dunkin’ cup and make your cap 3-D!
4. The Real My Plate Chart
Calling all the dietitians and nutrition majors! Let’s be real, vegetables and fruits are important, but so are tacos and coffee. Show everyone what the college food groups are on your graduation cap. Grab four different colors, and cut them up to make up the My Plate chart. You can stick to chocolate, coffee, wine and tacos, or totally make up your own!
5. If All You Did Was Wine…
Four years of college isn’t easy, and with it comes a lot of whining and wine. Whether you had a long day or were celebrating a good grade, there was nothing wrong with a little (or a lot of) wine. This cute cap is super easy to recreate using sparkly scrapbook paper, letter stickers and rhinestones to make the shape of a wine glass. You may have wined, but you’re finally graduating!
6. “Wanna Go On A Starbucks Run?”
We can’t forget our other caffeine crush: Starbucks. If you’ve been counting how many times you’ve run to your library café or into town for a vanilla latte, then this is the graduation cap for you. There’s no shame in the caffeine game. Use some green sparkly scrapbook paper and letter stickers to tell people how many cups of coffee you’ve had in the past four years. Don’t forget the iconic Starbucks logo!
7. Just Here For The Food TBH
If you have your priorities straight, you go to an event as big as graduation just for the food. Don’t worry, no one’s judging you. Get creative and pick your own colors and patterns to decorate your cap and tell people the real reason you’re at graduation.
8. Live Más
Let’s taco ‘bout college, and the fact that you’re finally graduating! It’s time to be more like Taco Bell and live más, without the textbooks and professors. Celebrate the occasion with big silver letters and get crafty by making a taco to top it off! You can even add guac (yes, we know it’s extra).
9. Donut Make Me Leave
“What are your plans after graduation?” Staying in college forever is not an option, but you can make one final plea with this adorable grad cap. Use felt or construction paper to make a donut (any flavor of your choosing) and use black letter stickers to spell out your desire to stay on campus. I mean, super senior sounds like a pretty good job to me…
10. Master Chef
If you didn’t just eat food in college, but actually studied it, you’ll be rocking a new uniform after graduation. With some white felt, black buttons and colored letters of your choice, you can easily recreate the design of a chef’s jacket on your graduation cap to let everyone know exactly what your post-grad plans are.
11. Your Favorite Campus Organization
Don’t forget about the organization that helped you “find your place” on campus. Whether it was the softball team, a sorority, a charity or Spoon University, paying homage to the time you spent working on your passions outside of class (and the people you spent that time with) is a great way to close the last four years.
Now with a few of these DIY graduation cap ideas in mind, get to crafting your own designs. You’ll be sure to turn caps this year!