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Saturday, 16 February 2008 14:54 |
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 Some friends threw a murder mystery party last weekend. The theme was Mardi Gras Masquerade. Now that is a theme that just yells out for a crafty project. So I had to answer the craft gods' call! I decided to make a masquerade mask.
I had no idea what kind of design I wanted to do. I just went into the craft store and started wandering the aisles. It wasn't long before I stumbled across their Mardi Gras section. They had basic masks that would make the perfect base to build off of. There was also a large selection of feathers. I quickly decided I didn't want to completely cover the mask in feathers. Instead I wanted them as an accent. I found a great feather set that had long feathers with small beads along the stem. A couple of aisles over I found the piece that finally gave me my design inspiration. In the dollar section, I found a bag of beautiful , shimmering turquoise sequins. I knew I wanted the mask covered in that shimmery loveliness. I decided the feathers would make dramatic eyebrows.  Once I got home, I began the long process of slowly gluing down each individual sequin. I just threw on a great music playlist and hunkered down to work. It ended up being a lot fun. I loved watching the layers of sequins start to grow and see the mask taking shape.
 Each sequin had a small hole on one end. I made sure that sequins on the next row covered that hole. When the rows of sequins got close to the the eyes on the mask, I glued down the feathers to create the eyebrows. I then placed sequins over the base of the feathers to hide it. I finished off the mask by outlining the eyes with a line of sequins giving them more definition. The last step was hot gluing a painted wooden dowel to the back so I could hold it. In a little under two hours, it was done!
I love the result! I've decided to hang it in my craft room because it looks so great. Plus, if I ever do go to Mardi Gras, I'll be prepared. Oh, and below is a shot I took of a cuddly model wearing the mask. It is my friend Jonas's dog, Dawson. Dawson is just a big cuddly bear. I think he looks very mysterious with the mask on ;)
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