horse of a different color part 3: THE FINALE

~ loooook at my horsey!!! I looooove how she turned out!!! ~

The reveal is finally - FINALLY - here peeps! After more than a year, SURPRISE! Here she is - my colorful little pony! Look how precious she is, standing so proud in her little pasture! :)

So of course you remember *THIS POST* when I introduced you to my paper mache horse that I had found in the basement of an antiques store, took home and painted black, and then ignored for too long...

... and in that same post, how I decided I needed to give my horse the attention and the fresh start it needed so it could reach the potential any paper mache creation is deserving of. High hopes for my friend, I had. Such high hopes! 

The Swedish dala horse was my main inspiration. I adore my Swedish friend Maria, and I have always loved these dala horses. I couldn't wait to get started! I drew out my design and began painting. Only... it looked just awful :( I had to be honest. It was truly horrid. Try as I might, I just couldn't get it right. I became completely bewildered. So the poor thing sat in a corner and whimpered at me for over a year. I felt so guilty I actually gave it a window to glance out of.

A few months ago the guilt + some new inspiration = snatching it up from it's window view before I hardly knew what I was doing, and painting over all my failed dala designs. WHEW! That felt sooo much better! In the back of my mind, I had an idea to make it into a cool *Piet Mondrian* tribute. But as I painted, I decided all the curves of the horse would have made all those straight lines nearly impossible. So... I just improvised. It was GREAT! I could hardly paint fast enough!  

Taken on Mother's Day... *LOVE*

I have very few photos of me actually working on a project!

Here is my tiny work space in my bedroom. All my paints and things - including my iTunes playing Imelda May on shuffle and repeat - and my patient horsey. At first it reminded me of the Coat of Many Colors spoken of in the Bible - you know, the story of Joseph. Then I loved how it started resembling a crazy quilt, made from all shapes and sizes of patchwork scraps pieced together willy-nilly. But in the end, the old cliche' won out - however you see it in your mind's eye, it's definitely A HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR :) Oh! And by the way? She's a GIRL!   

Now, she has waited a long, long time to prance around her pasture and show you how BEAUTIFUL she is! So please watch as she does all her turns for you, and shows off all her pretty colors!

She's ready for her close-ups!

NOW you know why I bought all that black automobile pin-striping!

I just can't help it you guys. I think she's so sweet :) I'm doing cartwheels - CARTWHEELS! - because I'm so happy she's finally finished after all this time. I feel like she is who she was supposed to be from the beginning. A horse of a different color - standing on the grass that she once looked out on from behind a window.  

patchwork tray

Well, you know how much I love color and how much I adore quilts. Here is a fun project I'd been wanting to do for some time, that gave a blah old wooden tray a lot of fun color with a patchwork look to it. I love how it turned out!

Here is the tray in original form. It was all right, but I felt like it needed some cheering up!

I spray painted it a bright white. This is just the first coat - I did 3 coats total.

I wasn't worried about coating the inside of the tray because I knew it would be covered with decorative paper, but I took special care to make sure the sides and edges and inside the cut-away handles were coated properly.
I chose all the paper that I wanted to use (6 sheets was plenty), and gathered my materials - Mod Podge, a brush, and scissors. Later I used a pencil to trace the cut-away handles and a damp paper towel to wipe Mod Podge off the tips of my fingers! Oh - and don't forget your diet Coke! LOL!
After that I just had a good time snipping and fitting and playing around with all the paper. I started with the sides and then filled in the bottom. I would lay one piece of paper down at a time, painting the surface with Mod Podge first.
As soon as all the pieces of paper were finally in place, I painted the entire surface of the tray with a few coats of Mod Podge, letting the first coat dry in between. I could have wet-sanded also but I'm much too lazy for that!
Since this tray will more than likely come in contact with drips and drops of liquid here and there, I will make sure to spray it with an acrylic before putting it into heavy duty service! (aren't you so proud of me Amy? lol)

So colorful & fun! It needs some Ruffles & diet Coke on it! :)