Rustical or Folk? Wooden Horse Makeover - tutorial

Hi again my dear friends!

It's great when we can share our creative ideas with friends don't you think? I was really happy when my Prima friends - Josie and Sally from Iron Orchid Designs proposed a creative collaboration!

A week ago they shared their creative genius with you showing how they combine IOD + Finnabair for the perfect Christmas DIY projects on Prima blog here.

Yesterday was my turn... and you can check out my project and tutorial also here! I hope you will like it!

Some of you know I LOVE wooden horses. My collection of them is not very big but it is growing and every time I spot a new interesting one, I'm really tempted to buy it!

My travels to Sweden were a real challenge for me - one of the symbols of that country is a beautifully hand painted, colorful...(yes, you got it right) Dala horse. I could see them everywhere and of course I took a couple home... but as they were beautiful vintage ones, I would never paint or alter them.

And then, one year IKEA came with this quite simple, nice in size and mass-produced version of Dala horse. Of course I bought one and took it home to re-purpose!

I took my art mediums and tools out and started working on the "grand makeover" - in a short time I got the results I was happy with!

I wanted my horse decor to be rustical and also to keep the folk style of the original Dala horse - and I think it is a great success!

Are you ready to try it? 

These techniques can be easily transferred to any objects including boxes, book covers, canvases, bottles and jars... and more!

1. I've started with getting one of the new IOD Moulds - floral elements from "Rustic Fleur" set were just perfect for the folk style I was going for. As you can use almost anything in these great quality moulds I decided to experiment with hot glue - and I filled the elements I was planning to use. When they cooled down I popped them out and glued them to the wooden horse using one of my favourite adhesives Art Basics Heavy Body Gel (but you could try Modeling Paste or 3D Gel from the same range too - they would work great!).

To make my dimensional folk design more interesting, I added some of my Art Ingredients Melange Art Pebbles in different sizes, glueing them to the horse exactly the same way!

2. I dried everything with a heating gun and I used Art Basics Heavy White Gesso to prime the whole surface of the horse.

After drying, I repeated the process on some parts which needed a second coat to get full coverage. I dried my project again.

3. When Gesso was dry, I added a generous amount of Art Extravagance White Crackle Texture Paste in between the elements to create a more worn, rustical look.

When the paste was still wet, I sprinkled a bit of Art Ingredients Art Stones in it to make the texture more interesting. I let my White Crackle Paste dry in my kitchen (the warmest place in my house!) and the results were just beautiful!

4. Now it was time to add a touch of colour. You can get beautiful vintage effects rubbing Memory Hardware Artisan Powder into your textured projects - I picked 2 tones: Vausseroux and Parthenay and brushed them with a soft paintbrush into all the details of my flower composition and all the crackles created with White Crackle Paste. I rubbed off the excess with my fingers and cleaned the project a bit with a wet wipe.

5. Finally, I added a touch of Teal and Deep Water Mica Powder from my Art Ingredients Line. I love how these tones beautifully go together with Artisan Powders and add a touch of shine too!

To protect my wooden horse, I sprayed it with a popular fixative for dry pastels and dried it. My winter folk horse was ready!

The real beauty of this project is in the details: just look at the beautiful, rustical finish, all the delicious details, beautiful effects of crackle over and around the floral elements - so simple to make, so much to see and touch!

Here is the list of the products I used - all of them linked to our Mixed Media Place Store!

Make sure to check Prima blog to see more of the fabulous, inspirational posts... and keep your eyes open for the sneak peeks of the new products coming soon too!

Sending hugs!

Hopeless Backyard Makeover - part 2

I'm in process of changing our Hopeless Backyard (mentioned in this post a couple of weeks ago) into something a bit more pleasant. I really want to have a look through my window and have a chance not to get depressed for the rest of the day just because the only things I can see are gloomy corner of the backyard, weathered gray, painfully sad garden shed and matching pessimistic garden wall.
On this point we've got our pallet decking done and I'm in process of planting, adding some garden furniture and decorations. I can see the light in the tunnel ;) But today I want to share the makeover of our wall and garden shed - I can't say they are beautiful, but surely they look better, weathered and distressed in a bit more controlled way ;)

Ok, let's start! Here is the victim - the most ugly shed in the universe...

I've decided to add touches of white paint and then decide what to do next with it. As you can see weather on that day was typically Irish...

Touches of vintage blue and green were a natural decision - we've already had blue because of the decking... (sigh). I've added 2 shades of blue in the corners, around the windows and later - on the door.

The effect was ok :) I was so excited about the final look I used the leftover white paint to add some color to the gray wall behind it - of course!

And here it is - better light, more optimistic setting, my "new" vintage shed with distressed effect in the great company of the white(ish) backyard wall. Not bad for a bucket of paint and a couple of hours of work!

I'm going to share some more photos when the plants and furniture will be more-less in place. So far, I'm still in progress...
Sending warm hugs from wet, windy Ireland!

Hopeless Backyard Makeover - part 1

As some of you already know - we moved.
Last year all our stuff was packed on a truck and taken from our apartment in Warsaw to the rented house in central Ireland. Huge step, great experience and - OMG - the biggest challenge ever.
We moved into modern, medium-sized semi-detached house and hey - it was a huge change - we never had so much space before! It really made me relaxed and more happy than before - finally space for living and working was separated and I could keep my bedroom just as a bedroom not extra storage space. There is a long list of advantages - and of course a similar list of surprises and unexpected circumstances you may name disadvantages (but I think being positive is always a better way!). Of course most of them appeared because we've never rented anything in our life - and we had no idea what are the standards in our "new" country. In the first months we had to learn a lot! :)
But - back to the main topic of the post - makeover!

Together with the house there comes the backyard: in our situation it was a hopeless piece of rocky ground covered with grass - you won't dare to call it a "garden" - no way! There wasn't a single plant in it: tree, shrub, nothing. Hopeless backyard in flesh. There was a special bonus though - shed in the beautiful, melancholic grayish shade you can basically call "weathered wood" and a piece of gray (of course!) wall to match it. Perfect view, right? The possibility of contemplating the structure of the wall and all the nuances of the inspiring color palette are just priceless!

The idea of the makeover came to my head when our friend told me there are some cheap pallets available for collection... that was what I needed! Inexpensive possibility to add some simple decking to our backyard and who knows what else... Uncle Pinterest is full of great ideas how to recycle these underestimated pieces of wood! Without hesitation I ordered a couple of them... and there is one thing I couldn't foresee: they came - all in blue. Of course.
I swallowed a dozen of impolite expressions that came to my mind and started to think: If I'm not lucky enough to get the pallets in nice, natural color I have to find a way to make it work somehow... and that's how we came with the idea of the shabby white. (OK, a bucket of white paint which I found in the shed helped me a bit too). We've started with a simple decking and soon covered it with white paint...

Of course I wanted it to look as old and distressed as possible so our painting wasn't perfect - we've just drybrushed the white on the top of the blue - and the effect wasn't bad at all! Of course it faded a bit later - but hey - we are going for distressed and weathered look, right?

Next step was creating a stand for my flower pots - of course I couldn't plant too much in the ground for 2 reasons: too many stones and rocks just under the surface and (what is more important as I'm not the one who would dig the holes anyway) I'd love to move with my plants if we'd decide to move someplace else.
Andrew made a quick plan and the flower stand was ready! ( Ira the Beagle was an independent consultant who apparently gave him some good tips and ideas...)

My job was painting of course - I took obligatory photo of my splattered crocks and I was ready to play with whites, blues and greens...

In the same time I my mind was  working on my secret plan... but I will tell you more about it in the next makeover blogpost!

In the end of the day we had our decking, flower stand and a couple of extras painted. I can't say I'm 100% happy with the effect but I like it far more than just empty corner and glass door - and I enjoyed that day very much :)
This spring I added flower pots, flower bed and we took out our old chairs and table and it is getting more and more cozy now: flowers are starting to bloom and all that colors simply make me happy!
Here is the effect - view from today:

You may not agree but I think it is better ;) Now I'm really tempted to paint the fence too. Another issue to discuss with the landlord :) Anyway, here is the flower stand in detail...

And opposite corner - small composition visible from my dining room. Still a couple of things missing. (I just couldn't resist and I HAD to get this old radio!)

So we are still miles away from the "gypsy garden" I'd dream of, but  it is definitely a progress and I hope it will get even better in the future. Fingers and toes crossed!

So now let me send you some hugs from my whitewashed, "artistically distressed decking"
and wish you all a great family time full of joy, love and blessings. Happy Easter!