Wintery Sleigh Ride!

Another recycled item to share with you today!

  I  do hope you have your cuppa full, because this is a  l o n g- pictured post with lots of yummy texture and colors- featuring DecoArt products.

                       Sit back and enjoy!  
 
 So,if you don't know me yet, you'll find, I'm not big on cutsie, not at all - so,when I found this sleigh at a garage sale - I knew that a heavy coat of gesso and some paint would work wonders! teeheehee

First thing was to remove the hardware and give the overall piece a light sanding

 

 The metal pieces received a spray coat of a beautiful brushed silver paint.

The sleigh carriage received a coat of gesso in and out.

 

 And now on to my colors.

  I pulled out all of my blues and whites,off white included, shimmer and matte as I was not yet sure of my final choice

 I decided on a mixed palette of  
Spa Blue,Sea Glass,Light Buttermilk and a touch Cobalt Teal Hue.

 My next step was for the layering- 
Dollops of White Wash, Titanium White,White Pearl, and Turquoise Interference and a makeup sponge...
I mix my colors as I pounce so the shades are intermingled.

 And now, pouncing color through Tim Holtz's HollyBough stencil onto the carriage.

 Next using my Shimmering Silver, I pounced random stars through a stencil the same as above.

 For my textured layer, I used the mix of leftover paints and a bit more of Shimmering Silver together with light modeling paste.

 This is applied through the stencil with my palette knife,covering both sides and the front & back of carriage.

I let this dry overnight and then sanded down the peaks and sharp edges.

                          

On to my snowflakes- well this was a cluster!
 I mixed colors and painted each and every Chipboard Snowflake I could find!

Then I decided I did not like the way they looked- 
just not enough pop!
So I decided to glitter them!
Here's a short story about embossing your glitter-

I watched a tutorial on Youtube about embossing your glitter so it would stay in place and not flake off! I thought,hey!way cool idea-I'm gonna do this!
Well, after burning my fingers 2 or 3 times and in the throws of burning my fingers, quickly moving the heat tool away, blowing it into the dish of fine glitter.....
What a mess!!! I had enough of this-real quick! heeheehee  So glad I wasn't recording this! ")

   

So I finished by gluing and adding glitter to my snowflakes and left them to dry while I continued on with my layering!

Next layer was a light application of Ranger Archival Ink ~Forget-Me-Not around the edges of the carriage body-giving it a gentle distressed look

 

 


Using my fingers, I gently brushed over the modeling paste areas a light coat of InkaGold~Haematite (metallic dark grey)

 

Next layer was a mixed coat of DecoArt Glazing Medium along with DecoArt Media~Turquoise Interference

over the entire carriage body.

 When all was dry I applied one final layer of Americana DuraClear Gloss Varnish.

 My last steps were to add my snowflakes using E6000 glue and reattach the sleighs and handle.



          Santa in his new sleigh in front
               of the Christmas tree!

 And finally...Chum is just itching to get ahold of Momma's vintage Santa...

 and he is quite annoyed when I tell him - No way!

Thanks so much for joining me and I really hope to have inspired you today!
Maybe you'll find some old and tired treasure that could use a lift and upcycle it !
Jackie ")