Getting Witchy With It: Witch Fascinator Headband - PAPER CRAFTS, SCRAPBOOKING & ATCs (ARTIST TRADING CARDS)

Time for my swan song post:

I never got around to posting this, but made it recently for a supply/blog site that for some reason never got posted. Anyway, it'll live in this little corner of the internet now...

I have never grown out of my love for dressing up for Halloween. It's the one day of the year that I can get away with wearing anything without people looking at me funny. I really wanted to see what kind of wearable could be made with some laser cut shapes. I was inspired by the Dragon Shape I had on hand - the wings remind me of bat wings which scream HALLOWEEN. How does one wear bat wings though? They are the perfect size for a hat so thus my inspiration took me....

I had a Premium Stack Ghost Stories scrapbook paper pad with fun Halloween prints, and picked a cute one with tiny skulls that would be low-key on theme without being super obvious from a distance. The paper also has a beautiful shimmer effect that is really hard to capture on camera (sorry I tried!). I used an old school protractor (yes I still have one) to trace out 2 circles, and then made a bigger 1/3 circle shape that I connected with lines to the center which made the cone shape for my hat (I found a basic template online to illustrate what I'm talking about). Repurposing some cereal cardboard from my recycle bin, I traced out the same circle shape to add some added stiffness to what will become the base of my hat, and then sandwiched it between the two smaller circles with some white glue and heavy books to weigh them down while drying.

While waiting, I took my 1/3 circle shape and rolled it to play with the cone shape until I liked how tall it stood and glued it in place with more white glue, a binder clip, and rubber bands. I opted for not using cardstock with the cone because the scrapbook paper was pretty sturdy by itself, and in a cone shape is even stronger to resisting damage as long as you're gentle with it. (Behind-the-scenes-reality: I did a first version with cardboard but couldn't get the cone to roll smoothly without ugly creases from the stiffness of the cardboard.)

Getting back to the bat wings of it all, I did a little surgery with the biggest dragon in the Dragon Shape, cutting the wings away from the body with a sharp exacto blade. I traces some veining on the wings with a pen, and then went over it with black puffy paint to give it a little dimension. Once that dried (the theme of this project is waiting for things to dry), I took some crumpled black tissue paper and modge podged it to the front and back of the laser cut shape and then (SAY IT WITH ME) let it dry.

I decided that besides the wings, I wanted my hat to have some sort of focal piece, so I got out a flourish-style oval frame and dug through my junk bins to see what fun thing I could put together. I had some plastic doll eyes and thought it'd be the perfect complement to the oval shape of the tiniest laser cut. I painted the outer frame with a wash of purple acrylic paint to give a breath of color to the hat, and then painted the inner oval piece black. Those dried quickly, and I glued the two layers and eye together with white glue.

Once all my pieces had some time to dry, I finally moved on to assembly and decoration! I cut away any excess tissue paper from the bat wings with a small sharp pair of scissors. You can easily do this with an exacto blade as well. Then I got out the hot glue gun. Very carefully I cut two slits on equal opposite sides of my cone to insert the wings. Once I positioned them where I liked them, I squeezed a liberal amount of hot glue on the inside of the cone where the wings meet the cone to secure them in place. Once the glue cools, they're rock solid and going nowhere.

I laid a line of hot glue on the inner part of the cone so that when I quickly connected it to the top side of the base, the glue seeped down to attach, without being visible to the outside. I then glued some decorative black trim on the edge of the hat brim to hide the slightly visible line of cardboard that is sandwiched between the two papers. I found some black tulle that I cut a strip of, to tie around the base of the cone to further disguise the join of the cone and circle, and then glued my focal eye to the knot.

Now that the hat assembly is done, I needed to connect it to something that would stay on my head: a plastic headband. I didn't want to rely on the miracle of glue alone to keep it all together, so I cut some circles of black felt to hide the join, as well as giving more area to glue together and make the whole thing more stable. I used my trusty hot glue gun again, gluing a little at a time, I also used this moment to sandwich in a bit more tulle for a fun fascinator hat vibe. You can wear it fluffed up in front of your face, or tucked back like a little tulle tail veil (I may have made that phrase up).

Voila! My creation is complete! A little witchy, and a little cute. Definitely a one-of-a-kind piece to stand out in a crowd.