Cheshire Cat on the Mad Hatter's Hat

Hello there,

I had a great time with the Top Hat kit that I wanted to share with you how I created the Cheshire cat on the Hat that was shown on the Hochanda show with Tracey Evans.

Along with the kit I used the mdf Alice and Grin embellishments.

To start with I assembled the hat using the hat band on the back and front to secure it, then I prepped all of the embellishments so that they were ready to place in the fabric whilst it was still wet

I started by using clear domes to create the eyes.  Using Powercolor black pigment mixed with Easy Varnish I painted the iris onto the flat side of the dome, let that dry completely then cover the whole of flat side with the Key Lime paint repeat this several times to get the depth of colour but let it dry between layers. Set aside.

Using the beautifully bright acrylic paints coat the letters, grin and Alice.  Don't forget the sides. Set aside.

Take the mdf playing cards and using a craft knife carefully cut the shape from the top of the card and use this to fill in the gap in the centre.  Coat the card with a layer of Ivory Powertex, let it dry completely.  Using a wet paintbrush draw around the image on the rice paper and gently pull away the areas not needed.

Coat the mdf playing card with varnish then lay the rice paper image on  top,  using more varnish go over the top of the image and sides of the card pressing gently to adhere.

When dry coat the edge of the card with Powertex Black.

 For the ears, mix up Powertex Black and Stone Art into a clay (when it no longer sticks to your hands its ready).  Shape two ears and set aside to dry.  Make sure you have a flat area that will sit nicely on the hat.

Whilst everything was drying I laid out the stripes on my cat, here is is shown using tin foil however as I had extra Stone Art clay I used that to make the stripes.





For the tail, I removed the quill part of the feather and used the Stone Art to depict the stripes.

Once I had them in position I painted the whole of the hat and tail in Black Powertex.


Using gauze and Black Powertex I then covered these making sure you press around the raised areas to get definition for the stripes.  Place the eyes and use a small piece of gauze to create eyelids.

Whilst this is wet place your letters, ears ( you may need to add additional Powertex to the flat part to ensure a good bond), Alice, Grin, Playing cards and the tail.  Use additional gauze to build underneath any embellishments that need more support.  Let dry

I then dry brushed the stripes and ears with a combination of the Blueberry Pie paint, Raspberry Sorbet paint and white pigment to get the shading.

I hope you have as much fun with the kit as I did and don't forget to post your makes on our Powertex Studio Facebook page.

Happy Creative Adventures

Axx