If you animate a hat, the resulting creature is not wearing a hat. Being a hat is not the same as wearing a hat or having a hat.

For the purposes of this card, an inanimate object is one not currently being used in the game. It must be small enough to be practical. You must legally be allowed to possess it. We really do mean inanimate, as in “not alive.” Why do I feel the need to be more specific? Not even formerly alive. Like a deck box or something.

If you use a five of spades, or any other object with numbers or text, ignore those numbers and text. The creature initially has only the characteristics given to it by the stickers you put onto it.

If you use a Magic card, ignore all its in-game qualities, including art. The creature doesn’t have its printed name, any of its printed text, etc. It’s the same as if you had used a five of spades.

Animate Object has received a minor update to its wording to add a word that we probably should have had there from the outset. Oopsie. The resulting creature is a token. If it leaves the battlefield, the game object ceases to exist. The actual object presumably continues to exist (Wizards of the Coast makes no claims, promises, or guarantees that ordinary household objects may not disappear into the fathomless void at any spacetime).