Mad Hatter Halloween Centerpiece

Oh, how I love Halloween! And I’m always looking for another centerpiece or table decoration to dress up my decor. The folks at HalloweenCostumes.com challenged me to take one of their accessories and turn it into a decoration of some sort- so I jumped at the chance! So for today’s post, I’m going to show you how I took their fabulous Mad Hatter hat and turned it into this show-stopper for my piano.

For this project, I used:

Mad Hatter Hat
Mad Hatter Hat Pins
Topiary Form
Foam Ring
DecoArt Texture: Fierro in Iron Black
Graphic 45 Halloween In Wonderland Paper pad
Dry adhesive (like the Xyron Creatopia)
Painting tools like the Martha Steweart Painting Sponges
adhesive rhinestone swirls
Battery powered tea lights
dry ice

I started off by painting the paper mache box with the DecoArt Texture Fierro in Black Iron. This stuf is amazing! It covered in one coat and provided sparkle and textureÂ the box. I used it on the topiary too.

Then I got busy with the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland paper pack. It comes with two-sided cardstock and is filled with backgrounds, postcards, tags, and borders! I used my Xyron Creatopia to make quick work of applying the adhesive. The 12″ width made it perfect for covering the pieces of cardstock edge-to-edge.

Next, it was all about decorating the sides of the box. I used some rhinestones, LOTS of Elmer’s Glue Dots (3D), and a little black tulle I had laying around. Since the paper pack comes with two sheets of each pattern, I cut out some extra areas to pop them up and give even more dimension.

For me, the “finishing touch” is using the Mad Hatter Hat Pins as decorations on the box. And I used one in the Mad Hatter Hat,too- it actually secures it to the top of the topiary!

Now, it’s not Halloween yet, but the idea is to get some dry ice and place it in the box, as well as some battery-operated tea-lights. I can just envision fog roiling out of the box and illuminating the hat from below!