Doodle Bug: Pink Street Party + Rocking Horse Glamor

This weekend is the Pink Street Party in Buffalo, a cancer awareness event whose mission is to "honor those who have experienced cancer, elevate cancer awareness, and enhance Cancer Care Services in our community." The downtown is decked out in pink, with food vendors and occasional shops hoppin' to support the Pink Street Party organization. If you're in the area tomorrow, come and check it out! For more information on the event, check out their website, here.

In order to participate and support, I wanted to bring in a cutie pink item. So I put on my girly hat, and decided that this little rocking horse was ready to put on her makeup and knock 'em dead!

Here she is...after I took out her mane & tail...it was very necessary. Lots of lovin' had made them a little sad. But never fear, she will get a new set soon...

Next, I removed all hardware (eyes...wow, that's strange to say..., ears, little bridle piece), sanded a little bit to rough up the surface, and primed with a brush and my Zinsser FastPrime 2. I don't yet know if I love this product, because I have not used Zinsser 1-2-3, which is their most popular primer. Next gallon I get, I think I'll buy their 1-2-3 and then I can compare and let you know! Zinsser is an extremely popular brand of primer, though, so I would recommend their brand.

Then, I put on two coats of regular white paint. Here's the equivalent of her "foundation" (hee hee...) so you see a nice, blemish-free surface.

Silver Spray paint on the runners! Hooray! Think of it as a favorite pair of shoes.

And next, I used a scenic artist trick, a "wet blend" to blend white and pink on the body of the little horse. *a wet blend means you take the two colors, have a different brush for each, and blend them while they're wet. Put on some white, then the pink, then take one of the brushes (I used the pink brush, but it just depends on which color can overpower more easily...use the paint color that does not overtake the other as quickly) and brush over the place where the two colors meet until you get a blend. It takes a little finesse, but you can get some great results. I used two smaller brushes, about 1" wide.

Oh, you'll also notice the little silver bling on the round bumps...did you know they make metallic silver craft paint? Oh yes, they do.

I used my handy-dandy stencils and silver craft paint to put some jewelry on this girl! Add in a little black shadow outline, and it pops right out!

In case you forgot or didn't read about the Antique Library Table, here are my lovely stencils (less than $4 at Wally World!)

These are the bomb.

...And then I decided to just go crazy and give her enough stencil jewelry to make the red carpet envious.

I finished off the painting with a good coat of polycrylic (especially since I used some craft paint) to give her some shine and a good, long life of glamor.

And as I promised, I put her mane and tail back. I used some grey yarn I had leftover from another project, here's the process:

Remember how we all used to make yarn pom-poms by wrapping yarn around a piece of cardboard and then tying a piece of yarn around all the pieces, then cutting across all the pieces on the other side? Well, I pretty much did that, without tying the pieces together. I wanted a bunch of uniform strands, so I wrapped the yarn around a small board to form the mane, then glued the pieces into the groove that was on the back of the head. For the tail, I used a larger board to get longer pieces, and I just stapled the tail onto the back about halfway down the yarn, so it would fold over and make a nice little tail!

Awww, Look at that face!

The part that I really struggled with were the eyes. I didn't want to make them too realistic, because I think there is a huge chance of them looking creepy! (not to mention I am not a fine artist...) So I used part of my stencil to make a swirly and then used black and white to add in some details. I think it was just enough, phew! And of course, I had to make her smiling--she's so happy to be part of the Pink Street Party!

The reveal: Here she is, flaunting her new look!