Designing Dala Horses for Valentine's Day with Heart

Many years ago I painted the pink Dala Horses in the photos so I thought I'd re visit the idea and see what else I could come up with.
This time I'd do it on paper.

I may still try these deigns on actual wooden horses to be sure they really work but for now, experimenting on paper saves me a lot of work. I this one I thought I'd add a bit of color to see how I'd like it.

On this one I went back to the all pink idea but added a bit of an all over pattern to kick it up a notch and I feel that I'm on to something here, what do you think?

New Products with my Dala Horse Designs

In this first scan you see one of my business cards along with a sticker sheet. I've done both on zazzle.com in my dala horse store. 

Here you just see a closer view of the sticker sheet. The most exciting thing about this is that it's made from drawings, paintings and actual wooden horses.
The other great thing is that they are shaped stickers and can be used to decorate most any surface so the possibilities are endless. I can't wait to use more of my designs this way!

Lampshade Design with Flowers and Dala Horses

This project began as an up-cycling project to freshen up a discolored and stained lampshade.

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I started out by painting flowers over the damaged binding and then tracing some of my wooden Dala horses on it.

I ended up adding all of the other designs to pull the flowers and the horses together.

The more I worked on it the busier the design got and the more fun I had.

The great thing about this project is that it gave me a lot of other ideas for things to paint. 

Dala Horses for Christmas

I really enjoy my Dala Horses at Christmas. I give some for gifts, put any of the ornaments that didn't sell on my Christmas tree and use the few horses that I still own as part of my Holiday Decor.

What's your favorite thing to do with your horses this time of year?

I think they really add to the mood and the charm of the season, don't you?

 We decided to use an old fiber optic tree this year because there just isn't room for a real tree in a tiny house.

I try never to do any 2 horses the same. Mixing designs and pattern keeps things more interesting, don't you think so?

Most of my other decorations are just bits of paper and old photos. Not only is it inexpensive. They don't take any storage place as I just toss anything that didn't last well and put other ones up as I sort through my photos each year.

It gives me a chance to scan a lot of the older ones and use up any that I don't plan to keep.

A Painted Box with Dala Horses

Greetings,

The weather is still too cold to be working outdoors so while I wait for spring to do much carving I started this small painted box to make a special gift for someone (maybe me) filled with tiny dala horse ornaments.

This is going to take some time as some of the paints that I am using require 2 or 3 coats to cover well. Yes, these paints were inexpensive bottle acrylics from a discount store. They were a gift and I can't tell you enough DO NOT skimp on your paints! I prefer the quality of a heavier bodied paint that will cover in one coat. It saves you both time and money in the long run. Both the Folk Art Multi Surface and The Martha Stewart Multi Surface Paints are made by the same company but the Martha brand is thicker, a bit more expensive and covers better. You choice of paints would depend on your budget and the sort of project that you are doing. For this project I'm going with Martha because it's thick enough to smooth small imperfections on the surface of the wooden box.

Thanks So Much For Joining Me,

I'll post more photos as I continue to paint,

Julia

Designing Baby outfits

Growing Girl Garden Bodysuit
by baby_art
Oops! I meant to put this one on my gardening blog.

Dark Dala Baby Bodysuit
by dalahorse
Back to designing dala horses. This one started with a drawing.

Baby Blue Dala Horse Body Suit Baby Bodysuit

by dalahorse

This one was especially fun. I shot a lot of photos of one of the horses that I had designed, carved and painting and combined 3 of the views here.

Brush Stroke Paractice for Dala Horses on a Wheelchair Ramp

What I love about doing this project is having lots of places to practice various color choices and brushstrokes in a way that's fun, interesting and useful.

I also hear it's becoming a bit of a landmark and a topic of discussion in the neighborhood.

It's fun to see the smile on people's faces as they walk by.

Fun Horse Designs

I never do the same thing twice, not even on the same horse as you can see by these photos of the north woods themed horse.

The other interesting thing about this horse was that I painted some of the wood grain because there was one dark streak on one side and I wanted a natural but more even look to it.

 If I do more horses like this one I'd use a lighter blue for the small flowers for better contrast. You never really know until you try and find out what you like. The more you paint the more confident you will be with your choices and the better your horses will look. Keep painting, it only gets better.

Designs for Yellow Dala Horses

 Here's an easy design that uses simple brushstrokes and only takes 3 colors (yellow, red and blue)

1. Start by painting your horse or other project Yellow.

              2. Place large red dots evenly across your project.

              3. Paint blue lines between the red dots.

              4. Use a smaller brush to pain blue dots in the middle of the red                   ones.

              5. Frame the dots with blue coma strokes.

              6. Fill the space between them with red coma strokes in pairs                       facing opposite directions.