Ruffled in Darkness

Well hello there lovelies! I have been on a hat making kick and am going strong with so many designs. You all will probably get sick of me posting these. Hehe! I have wanted to make a totally black and soft hat featuring a more elegant gothic feel and so I decided to play with lots and lots of feathers. I was inspired by all of the beautiful ravens that are cawing around my neighborhood. Here is the finished design. Enjoy!

I started with the usual foam. I used the taller black top hat for this feathered design. The shorter white hat will be featured at a later date. 

I glue my hat together and the grabbed a load of black feathers. You can dye your feathers using food coloring if you would like to make a certain color. The draw back is, the lack of certain colors in food coloring, and it makes the feathers more of a light color. But anyway, it is a fun thing to try!

As you can see in the picture above, it was a feathery good time! Those feathers ended up everywhere! Each feather was laid exactly where I wanted it and surgically glued into place. I didn't want any of the stem to show so there is a lot of overlap. The feathers were bent and curled to fit the curve of the hat.

The skull and wings were given a special treatment and then I added some dark blue rhinestones to it. The circle under the beak was inlaid with Prussian blue paint and highlighted with glossy accents. I added some soft black lace around the base of the hat and also tied some black leather into knots to give it more texture. It is hard to see in the picture.

The sides of the hat feature a TH skull and crossbone. The eyes are ice blue rhinestones from Xanderous Crafty Stash. Those little gems are so little and were very interesting to work with. The eyes were glued in with glossy accents as well. I did trim off the loop at the top of the skull.

The back of the hat showcases the large lace bow and another skull and crossbone. The lace is extra long to give the hat a nice added form of elegant goth. I do hope you enjoyed this journey with me! Thank you for looking! Carpe Diem!

I would like to share this hat with these challenges:

Rhedds Creative Spirit-Anything MM Goes

Altered Eclectics-Anything MM/Altered Goes

Eclectic Ellapu September-Flora/Fauna and/or Nature

With so many ravens about in my neck of the woods, I thought this would fit into the Nature part. 

Sisterhood of Crafters-Anything Goes 

Creative Artiste Challenge #30-Anything MM Goes

Inlaid Die Cuts

Hello! A new challenge started at Mix It Up. The challenge is to use an inlaid die cut. To be completely honest, I had never heard of this technique and so google helped me. Haha! What an interesting and fun time I had. I should have gone for a more simple die cut, but I never take the easy way! Haha!

I started with a Prima watercolor paper that already had a resist on it. I added some Lindy's magicals from my favorite Steampunk set and got to adding some color. The paper took the water like a champ! I totally enjoy how the magicals flow together and work so beautifully together!

Now comes the inlaid die cut part. After google, and my team explained this technique to me, I was intrigued to try it! So, I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz MM#2 die and cut it out of my paper. I saved all of those little tiny pieces and then cut the die again using white fun foam. I was able to keep the fun foam in the die cut and then just laid that into the paper die cut. Whew! That saved some time. 

Then I started to add the paper die cut on top of the inlaid foam die cut. Very time consuming but also kind of relaxing. I knew where the pieces needed to go and just went at it. I used TomBow glue for this step. 

I added a Reneabouquets butterfly and another die cut for the sentiment (thank you to Sara Emily for that one!). The sentiment die cut was heat embossed using white and gray powders. It is a bit wonky but so am I.

I then added some lovely flowers (also from Reneabouquets) and a handmade bow I made from some crinkle ribbon. I used Lindys Stamp Gang mists for the ribbon.

And there is my take on the inlaid die cut technique. Have you tried this before? I may be the only to have not heard about this technique. Lol! Carpe Diem! Hugz! ~Niki

I am going to share this creation with these lovely challenges:

Mixed Media World-Anything Goes with a Mood board Twist

I was inspired by the colors from the peacock feathers and the swirls in the tree picture.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Anything Goes

Deep Ocean Challenge #162-Favorite Color Combo

Of course my favorite color combo is blue with hints of grungy rust and white

4 Crafty Chicks #366-Anything Goes and a Cray Egg

Scrappy Land Challenge #72-Anything Goes