Tag Archives: Accessories

Last night we attended a masquerade Christmas cocktail function, and I needed a mask, so I visited Spotlight and picked up some basics to decorate one.
Boy, was this fun…  I felt like I was in kindergarten all over again!  Glueing stuff on and sprinkling sparkle dust is a heaps therapeutic way to spend and hour or so; so I do recommend this!  Oh, I miss when the kiddies were little and I had a legitimate excuse to indulge in this kind of activity…  now they’re all grown up one needs a Good Reason to get out sparkle dust…   luckily this was it.
So I purchased two small packets of feathers and two masks; one gold and one plain white plastic, and put together some other bits and bobs I had already.
I didn’t have a firm plan but just gathered lots of stuff together to play with.  Some black lace, black net, some scraps of sequinned fabric, glue and sparkles…  I did get out some old stamps and a stamp pad, but ultimately didn’t use these as the ink wouldn’t “set” on the plastic and just smeared off…

I bought two masks because the ones in Spotlight were so flimsy I worried that they would crack or split too easily… and glued them together for a firm base to play on.  (I almost typed in “work with” there but then got real, hey, “playing” is a far more appropriate verb, methinks!)

Then just started glueing…  I only used a tiny fraction of the feathers I bought and there is heaps left over for some other project…  

Once I had enough fluffiness I cut out a lace motif and glued it over the top of the gluey ugly bit where all the feather shafts were showing.
Dabbed glue and sparkle gel on and around about in a random artistic way, and sprinkled wicked green dust over…

I later added a bit more black net over the nose region, sliding it carefully underneath the feather and lace.  Would have been better to have thought of this in the early stages, but meh, got it in there OK.
Also later noticed a bit of white from the under-mask showing, so I used a Sharpie to draw in “eyeliner” around the eyes, both to colour in over the white, and to add a bit more drama.
Voila!
Here are the masks we wore; the one on the right was made by my son a while ago, and worn by my husband.  Needless to say, the ladies’ masks were all tres glamourous at the event, and most of  the mens’ were plain and rather sober.  Well, this is Australia.  Generally speaking Aussie men struggle with the concept of sparkles.