I had this 25-cent bowler I picked up at a garage sale. I swore I wasn’t going to paint it. I wasn’t going to turn a 2-hour project into a 2-day project. Yeah, that worked out. I used:
- Bowler (garage sale)
- Skulls (dollar store)
- Death figure (part of my Secret Pumpkin gift)
- Flowers (garage sale)
- Ribbon (Michael’s, $3.99)
- Purple garland (stash)
- A bunch of acrylic paint
I started by gathering possibilities, and narrowing them down.
See those flower things there? Totally on the first iteration of the bowler. The one without paint.
I thought the wonderful Death figure would look great riding on my bowler. He’s a little heavy, but it still works. I added in skulls, a silky band from the same garage sale as the bowler, and some purple garland from my stash. I finished it. I took pictures. I hated it. I pried off everything but Death and the skulls, taped up Death’s legs, and started painting.
Unsurprisingly, I had to go over everything several times to get much vibrancy against the black velvet of the hat.
Bit by bit, the hat is painted in white, orange, purple, and a touch of green. I especially love the green on the skulls.
That purple stuff gets glued on again, and a new hatband is attached. I actually purchased this ribbon, when nothing in my stash proved satisfactory. That’s right, I spent actual money on this.
Said ribbon got some Fray Check on the ends as a finishing touch.
Lastly, from the same box as the Makit-Bakit crystals came a bunch of silk flowers mounted on stick pens. Off they came, to be attached to my hat. And it is festive indeed.
Sorry, this hat will not be in the raffle. It’s too delicate to ship. Also, I want to keep it.
Love this! What a concept. (Looking good in the last pic, too.)