Hey, y’all! Have you checked out the Tres Jolie Kit Club September Scrapbooking Kit yet? Seen this month’s mood board? Both are fabulous! The kit has the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from 3 Quarter Designs – the perfect fit for the “Shabby Steampunk” mood board challenge!

Now, I love, L-O-V-E, Steampunk, and while I’m not a 100% Shabby Chic type of person, there are aspects I really love about that style too. This week, for my mood board inspired project, I have a Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat I created using a cut file I designed, the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from the kit, a couple of moulds, and lots of mediums from my stash – quite a few that are from previous Tres Jolie Kits!

It wasn’t until I was editing the video that I realized this project isn’t all too “complicated.” The majority of the time spent working on it was really just “busy work” – i.e. rolling clay, gluing, painting, etc. Once I had my base together, and finally figured out where this hat was headed, it went together rather smoothly! Check out my video and see what I mean!

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Don’t forget to join the Tres Jolie Mood Board Challenge this month! Make sure to place your entry in the September 2022 Challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page by 11:59pm CST on September 30, 2022, for your chance to win a prize!

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Alright! Time to get talkin’ about this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat!

The first thing to do was to put my base together. There aren’t too many pieces – I tried to keep it as simple as possible while creating the size I wanted while using my 12” x 12” cutting mat and cardstock. There really is only one way everything fits together, but I have included a photo for reference using the cut file.

After my cardstock base was together, I added some black gesso to all of the areas that I thought may or may not get covered by the patterned paper pieces – I did it mostly because I had used white cardstock, if I had used a darker cardstock or a coordinating cardstock, I don’t know if I would have added the gesso. However, it did also give a little extra stiffness to the base, so that was a bonus I hadn’t really thought of! And, even though it is no longer noticeable, I also added a layer of “Halo Pink Gold” Metallic Paint on top of the black gesso – just to be prepared in case any of those areas didn’t get covered in the later stages.

I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do for the inside of the hat, I just knew I didn’t want to just give it a coat of paint. Finally, I decided to see if I could do a paint pour – on some tissue paper – to create a liner! It was messy, but it worked! And I was able to use that paint pour on the inside, sides. For the inside top, I just mixed up a little more to pour and dumped it right in.

I wanted to get as many pieces ready for assembly as possible before sitting down to start the process, so I used some leather-effect polymer clay to create the “leather” underside of the brim and I used some metallic and glitter polymer clay in a couple of embossing folders to create the sheets of “metal” to fill between the leather-clay and to use along the outer edge of the brim.

The final set of pre-assembly pieces I made were the patterned paper panels and the pink band for the hat. For the pink band, I just cut the half-sheet from the paper pack in half and connected the ends to make one long strip.

For the top, side, and brim patterned paper panels, I partly eyeballed, partly measured approximately where the cut would be – especially for the pieces that have the mannequins, hot air balloon, etc. – and cut them all out. Much like the base pieces, there are not a lot of ways for the pieces to fit all together, but I will add a reference photo here for the panel locations on the base.

As I sat staring at all my pieces, trying to decide how to use those chipboard and cut-apart pipes, I thought of windows; little steampunk windows to see the “inner workings” of the hat. I grabbed up some circle dies, picked a few places around the brim and on top of the hat, and cut the circles out of the patterned paper.

I used a couple of stencils with a couple TCW Stencil butters to add some dimension and texture to the circles I cut out, coated the chipboard pipes in copper embossing powders, and added some Beads In A Bottle to create a little dimension and bolts/rivets to the chipboard. Then I started the assembly process while I waited for my resin to set up in my gilding flake coated, polymer clay window frames.

After all my pipes were in place I gave them a coating of clear gesso so I’d be able to add my paints to create the illusion of depth with shadows.

Now it was finally time to add my patterned paper panels! I also added the pink band, and I created the inside band using the half-sheet of paper from the pack that looks like leather. I finished adding all my clay pieces to the underside of the rim and added them to the outer edge of the brim.

So now I had all of the pieces of the hat together – except the windows – and started my work on filling any gaps and smoothing it all out. I used a mix of gold Stencil Butter, gold Beads In A Bottle, and 3D Matte Gel to smooth along the edge of the brim with all the layers, and to fill in any spaces that I thought needed it. To prepare for the addition of the windows, I added a ring of Beads In A Bottle around the circles on the hat brim and top.

While my hat sat off to let that gold mix dry, I got to work on putting the focal point of the hat together. I grabbed up some mould pieces and used 3D Matte Gel to hold them in place, and after adding my gesso, I started adding the first layers of paint. While the gears and heart were setting up, I put my pipe pieces together and added the first layers of paint to them. I added the heart and gears to the pipes using more 3D Matte Gel, and set it off to let it set up while I added my lace bits and gilding flakes to my hat base. Before I got too much further along, I added a coat of Workable Fixatif so when the time came to add my final paints there would be a layer of protection on the patterned paper that would keep the wet from just soaking right in.

I laid my hat on its side, using whatever I had on hand to hold it in place and prop it up so the side I wanted to add the heart and pipes to was, at least mostly, level. I made sure to do this close to bedtime, so the 3D Matte Gel I used to hold the resin pieces in place had time to set up – without me becoming impatient and checking it too soon! I also started adding some art stones to the areas I could get at with the hat on its side.

Now it was finally time to add on the windows in preparation for the final layers of paint, art stones, and waxes.

I added more paint to my resin pieces, being careful when I was near my windows so they wouldn’t get splatter on them, and then just started working my way down from the top of the hat with more art stones and my paints. I let all the paint dry before flipping my hat over and adding some paint to the underside of the brim.

The final touches on this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat were the addition of a few Finnabair waxes to the top, sides, art stones, lace, and the top and underside of the brim.

Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed my Shabby-Steampunk, mood board inspired, Top Hat and it gave you some ideas and inspiration for how you can use this month’s Scrapbooking Kit and/or find inspiration for your own mood board project!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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In addition to this month’s Scrapbooking Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

**(Disclaimer: Some [non-Tres Jolie] items may contain an affiliate link, allowing me to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you!**

Corner Scraps Studio Top Hat Digital Cut File , Finnabair Black Gesso , Finnabair Clear Gesso , Finnabair 3D Matte Gel , Finnabair “Ink Black” Liquid Acrylic Paint , Finnabair “Burnt Sienna” Liquid Acrylic Paint , Finnabair “Machinery” Stencil , Finnabair “Love Machine” Mould , Finnabair “Steampunk Hearts” Mould , Finnabair “Enchanted” Sparks Paint , Finnabair “Rose-Gold” Opal Magic Paint , Finnabair “Soft Satin” Metallique Paint , Finnabair “Steampunk” Metallic Flakes , Finnabair “Shabby Pink” Matte Wax , Finnabair “Sepia” Antiquing Wax , Finnabair “Indian Pink” Metallique Wax , Finnabair Art Stones , Finnabair Mini Art Stones , Nuvo Mica Mist “Antique Gold” , Tim Holtz “Foundry” 3D Texture Fades , Tim Holtz “Diamond Plate” Texture Fades , Distress Paint “Salvaged Patina” , Distress Foundry Wax “Mined” , Distress Foundry Wax “Statue” , TCW “Grecian Gold” Modeling Paste , TCW “Sterling Silver” Modeling Paste , TCW “Fuchsia” Stencil Butter , Katy Sue Designs “Rusty Pipes” Mould , Jacquard Lumiere “Halo Pink Gold” Metallic Paint , Ranger Iced Enamels “Relique Glitz Copper” Embossing Powder , Gary M Burlin Co. “Patina Bronzed Copper” Embossing Powder , Tulip “Copper” Beads In A Bottle , Tulip “Gold” Beads In A Bottle , Ranger Big Emboss It , Liquitex Pouring Medium , Liquitex Matte Medium , Staedtler Fimo Leather Effect “Berry” , Staedtler Fimo Leather Effect “Nut” , Creative Embellishments “Riveted” Stencil , Spellbinders Standard Circle Nestabilities , white cardstock , Fabri-Tac , Liquitex Matte Gel , spray bottle , Amazing Clear Cast Epoxy , Amazing Casting Resin , E6000 , Aleene’s Tacky Glue , Krylon Workable Fixatif , lace tidbits