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Writer's pictureMixed Media Mel

Haunted Hats

Get ready to have some fun with this one!! All you need are straw hats, paint and some fun embellishments to make these delightfully horrifying hats.


Fall is coming folks; I can smell it in the air!! Well, I’m in Florida so I guess its just pumpkin spice buy hey I can still decorate! I actually had a few of these finished in my Halloween decoration collection but decided to make a couple more since they are so fun; and they make for an amazing decoration. I will be showing you specifically how to make the clown and ghost versions of this craft but feel free to use any of them as your muse! You can also make a creepy creature of your own (please show me @mixedmediamel)! I got my straw hats at multiple places; the bigger ones were from the thrift shop and the others a combination of craft stores and Amazon. Other than the hats you’ll need acrylic paint in various colors and some add-ons. Try to work with what you have in your repertoire, you can use felt, foam sheets, fabric paint, googley eyes, pipe cleaners, yarn etc. to create these haunting hats.


Once the base colors are painted the REAL fun begins!!

Basically with each creature the dome of the hat is their face and the brim is the background. Use your imagination! You can get inspiration from one of my spooky sombreros or go for a spider, vampire or jack-o-lantern! I suggest a Halloween craft-a-thon with friends. Everyone bring a hat, some paint and embellishments and let the scary soiree begin!! Make it even more fun by having some scary movies playing and a fun fall cocktail! I tested out an apple cider sangria (recipe below) while crafting these boo-tiful beings.



You want to paint your base colors first (light to dark) and then follow with embellishments. For the ghost I used white on the dome of the hat and went for an orange background. I embellished it with an old white T shirt to tip my hat (well, hats I guess) to the old sheet over your head ghost costume. An oldy but a goody. I used hot glue to attach the shirt and then added some “arms” underneath with pipe cleaners to give some more shape. I finished him off with some googley eyes and a simple mouth with fabric paint. The last touches were the stars hot glued on the background and the Boooo with fabric paint.





The dome of the hat was also white for the clown and a bright yellow background for the hats brim. I added some polka dots to the brim with fabric paint and made his outfit with felt. I had some thick white yarn that I lined the collar with (just using hot glue) and then cut holes to weave the yarn through to get the ruffle look. His face turned out way more frightening than I planned!! I started with the blue fabric paint for the blue detail “make-up” and just glued the eyes over top of that (for the eyes I just layered some sparkle paper). The mouth I sketched in pencil first and actually broke my ‘light colors before dark’ rule, painting the inside of the mouth black first and then going over the teeth in white and then the red for the lips. I did it in that order because the surface of the hats are a little difficult to be very detailed with a brush, and I wanted the teeth to look a little ‘dirty’ so I went with the white before the black was totally dry. I used a plastic water bottle lid painted red for this nose. His hair was 2 lengths of yarn wrapped around a book and tied together. I hot glued them side-by-side to create a bit of a hairline and just tousled it up a bit.



Now it’s time to create your very own creatures!! You can create multiple for a statement look on a wall or simply make and use one for a door hanging/wreath. Please if you have any specific questions for how we made any of the other creatures comment below or send me a message from the Contact tab!! I would love to see your finished projects and possibly feature them in the photos of this post!!!




What you need:

· Straw hats (any size)

· Acrylic paints (various colors)

· Fabric paint (puffy paint)

· Hot glue gun/glue sticks

· Scissors

· Add on embellishments such as- foam/felt, googley eyes, yarn, beads, buttons, pipe cleaners, stickers, fabric etc.



What to do:

· Decide on a character and paint the dome of the hat to match that characters facial tone

· Paint the brim in a fun background color (Tip: you can use multiple colors to create a night sky, ombre effect etc.)

· Embellish your character with eyes, mouth, accessories etc.







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