A Victorian Christmas Sleigh Decoration from Retro Cafe Art Gallery

This really has been a fun project. I worked on this for several days, I let it sit on my worktable and just wait for another idea to enter my brain on how to decorate  and display my

Large Victorian Christmas Sleigh kit.

I love how this centerpiece for our family room coffee table turned out. The sleigh comes in 5 easy pieces to paint and put together. I like to paint and decorate it first, and then glue. But you can do it any way you like.

First I painted it with ArtDeco Fluid Acrylic paints on the inside of the sleigh. Then I stamped images with black archival ink.

These are the INSIDES of the sleigh.

I added dimension with Modeling Paste and the Flourish Stencil for the OUTSIDES of the sleigh. 

Then I used paper clay to make moulds from Iron Orchid Designs. I cut some apart to get a layout that I liked and glued them on with 3D Gloss Gel. I used Baroque 1, Baroque 2, and Baroque 3 moulds. 

You can see them glued on over the stenciled areas on the outside. If you add them while wet, they easily glue and dry without warping. I used the DecoArt Fluid Acrylics Metallic Gold on the moulds.

A wash of black and brown acrylic paint is added over the gold on the moulds and stenciled areas. Vintage Gold Metallique Wax can be added to bring back more of the golden shine. I also used it to highlight the stenciled reliefs a tiny bit. 

I drilled 2 holes in the sleigh and added chain to hang the Mini Black Lanterns. They are easily colored with Fire Ruby Antique Brilliance Wax. 

I think they are adorable!!!

I'm always about highlighting the edges with black to make the colors stand out, so I used a permanent pen to go around several areas just to make the colors pop.

This is a shot of the emblem on the back. There's a smaller one on the inside as well, but it's hard to see with the packages.

The Mini Christmas Light Garland and Mini Gift Packages helped to fill the Sleigh, but it could also hold cards, or ornaments, or even Santa himself! Follow the links for products found at

Retro Cafe Art Gallery.

The sky is always the limit.

I hope you enjoyed this post and are inspired to create something magical of your own for the season.

Your Friend in ART,

Linda

Sharing the Love at Christmas Time

These little lovelies are going out to my Art Sister Team Members at 

Retro Cafe Art Gallery.

They are pretty easy and fun to put together for friends or your own holiday decorating. I'll share the steps and the links below.

When I glitter objects, I always base-paint with the same color as the glitter I will use. Here I used white and gold paint.

 I brush gloss gel on the wings, and then sprinkle 3 different colors of gold glitter to create a vintage and aged effect. The Snowflakes are created the same way except I use the white Art Sugar. It's a really fine grade of glitter that is gorgeous. A tiny bit goes a long, long way.

The collage picture is layered onto a piece of chipboard and cut out to fit the frame. Paint the frame red, add tiny gold dots around the edge, and glue to the pictures. Use the round spacers from the wings behind the snowflakes to layer up your pieces with 3D Matte Gel or Heavy Body Gel. Add the Christmas pics behind the snowflakes.

You can add gold twine or wire in the ornament hole to hang. 

The possibilities are endless. 

This just gets your ideas flowing with your own creativity. 

Hope you're inspired to play.

Your Friend in ART,

Linda

Retro Cafe Art Products:

Small Layered Snowflake Ornaments

Angel Wing Cut-Outs with Ornament Holes

Steampunk Wings Medium

Art Sugar-White

Soft Gloss Gel and 3D Matte Gel

Vintage Christmas Collage Sheets

Other Products Used:
Metallique Paint-Royal Red (Finnabair)
Heavy Body Gel (Finnabair)
Liquid Gold Opaque Paint Marker
Finnabair Glitter (mix of 3 colors)
Christmas picks
Gold Twine

My Garden Fairy Beauty Update

Hi everyone, it's been quite a long time between posts. I really didn't think anyone still read my blog much any more, but I had someone ask today if I'd posted this little Fairy redo here, so this is for a friend in Las Vegas.

This little statue has been my favorite for several years. She was painted with a kind of brown/taupe paint that had begun to peel, her wing broke off when an over-exuberant dog knocked her over, and her foot was gone. 

After scrubbing her up and gluing her wing back on with Heavy Body Gel, I decided to try to mold a new foot for her with paper clay. I had to wrap it more around her leg to prevent it from coming off again, but it's better than no foot at all. 

First I painted her with acrylic paint Italian Sage. Not for outdoors, but I liked the color. I'd worry about that later. Then I started to add the Blue and Green Patina Effects Pastes to various areas. I didn't cover her completely, but the base was pretty much all over color.

Then I added some of the Brown Rust Effects Paste to tone down the colors. A wash of brown also added some age.

Here you can see her new little foot and the shine of the Brass that is added last.

I didn't add the wash to the Fairy herself. Very little of the patinas were used on her skin. But her dress and cap had more color to create contrast. Check out the links for the Finnabair products from Prima.

I will seal her if she ever goes back in the garden in the Spring, but somehow I think she's found a home here in my Studio. 

She makes me smile and gives me a sense of peace.

Be well, and be good to each other,

Your Friend in ART,

Linda

Coral-Crowned Articulated Paintbrush Doll

This lady is absolutely one of my new all-time favorites from 

Retro Cafe Art Gallery
that is featured in the new Nov/Dec Somerset Studio magazine.

She is an Medium Paint Brush Articulated Doll Kit

 that has been painted and stamped,

with a paper clay head surrounded by twisted red wire curls.

Most of the items are available at Retro Cafe Art Gallery 

online store and I'll highlight the links as I go. The new
colors of Metalliques are just out.

I base coated the body of the doll and added stamped images 

from Lynne Perrella L028 at PaperArtsy.

Then I highlighted certain areas of the piece with Metallique Paints

from Finnabair's newest line.

I used Mermaid Teal, Crocus Fields, Soft Satin, and Coral Reef. The other 

older colors I used are Steampunk Copper and Brass Hardware. 

I painted the brush part with Coral Reef and the

Chipboard Clock Hands with Steampunk Copper. 

The Brass Angel Bust fit perfect on the torso. 

The Wings are painted with the Metalliques Paints in

a sporadic pattern.

A colored Rhinestone becomes her necklace.

The Paper Clay Art Doll Mould has 26 gauge red wire used for hair, and the 

Coral Chipboard Cut Out creates a crown. 

A few Black Micro Beads are used as filler on the brush that are added with
Soft Gloss Gel, and the Baroque Gold Dresden is wrapped around the top
of the brush. (silver is shown on the link)

Add the brads and she is ready to hang up on the wall. That's what's so
cool about these Dolls, they already have a hole in the top
of the brush that lets you easily hang them anywhere.

The magazine will be on the newstands Nov.1st. The Totem Pole doll post is found here.

http://cain81art.blogspot.com/2017/06/my-paintbrush-totem-pole-doll.html

That's it for me. Hope you're inspired to play.

See you back here soon.

Linda