Steampunk Hat Trick

One of the biggest steampunk accessories apart from goggles seems, when googling, to be hats. 

So, when asked to do a steampunk-themed birthday card I thought a hat would fit the bill best. 

Quite pleased with the result too.

This is the finished hat from one side (feathers, dies, metal flower and cute scissors plus a bit of organza, glitter and pearl bling). The actual hat is dark brown, then lined on the outside with dotted purple/brownish cardstock.

This is the other side, with the congrats embossed in copper on a nicely steampunky hot air balloon cardstock (plus various cogs), cut out after the cloud shapes on the cardstock.

 I had seen plenty of steampunk corsets and corset linings, even on hats, so decided to have that as well, hence this back.

Having scoured the 'net for suitable bling I finally contented myself with decorating using copper pearl and glitter wands from Joanna Sheen (gorgeous sheen and easy to apply!), a few heart-shaped steampunk dies plus metal flowers and cogs ,,

 and of course feathers! Mainly pearl hen feathers, both natural and colored.
Now actually getting the feathers to stick nicely to a hat took quite a lot of glue gel and patience as both feathers and fingers quickly got sticky and uncooperative but we got there in the end.

The actual hat shape came from a die, Sue Wilson's Austrian Collection - Salzburg, that made up the top and bottom ovals. "In between" is a 4-5" wide strip of regular cardstock, 12" long, which turned out to be a perfect length to go around the top oval.
The bottom oval was too small as a brim (or rather I should have made the crown bigger near the top and smaller near the brim) and since I was lining the outside anyway I made a bigger brim to match.

Craft Dies from Joanna Sheen, of course :)