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