Search Results for: swedish dala

Holiday Swedish Dala Horse Dress

November 12, 2012 by Ashley Hackshaw

The Swedish Dala Horse dress is back for the holidays and ready to ship! Wear it alone or over a long leeve tee for colder months.

Holiday Dala Horse Short Sleeve Layering Dress via lilblueboo.com

Swedish Dala Horse Block Print

October 6, 2010 by Ashley Hackshaw

Make this easy Swedish Dala Horse Block Print in just a few easy steps!

I love dala horses. My grandfather’s family originated from Sweden and when I was little I received these Swedish handcrafted wooden horses as gifts. I thought a block print of a dala horse would be so cute to use for notecards, clothing and garland.

I decided on a simple image to use on both paper products and clothing:

To make a block print, you’ll need:
Speedy-carve block
Basic carving tool set
Brayer
Screen printing ink or fabric paint for printing on fabric or craft paints if printing on paper
Small piece of glass (I took mine from an discarded photo frame)

Step 1: Print off your image in reverse and make sure it fits onto your carving block:

Step 2: Transferring the image to the block. Use a warm iron to transfer your image from a freshly printed laser or ink jet image. Just press firmly, make sure not to melt your block and burnish the back of the paper periodically until you start to see the image left behind on the block.

The transferred image will be fairly light but you can see it more clearly by tilting it in different light.

Use a pen or pencil to draw in your image more clearly:

Step 3: Carving out the image. Using your carving tools carefully carve out the outline of the image and all the “negative” areas:

Carefully carve out the area around the image:

And finally, cut out around the image as shown below:

Step 4: Applying ink to your print. Apply a small amount of ink or paint to your piece of glass. Using the brayer, roll a small area out to a thin even layer:

Using the brayer, apply a thin, even coat of ink to the block carving:

Place the carving face down on fabric or paper and press firmly. Carefull lift up to reveal the printed image.

Your first print will be a test to see which areas of the block you still need to carve out….you can tell in the image below that some areas were left outside of the horse image that needed to be carved out:

With a little practice you will get a perfect print:

I used this particular dala horse print as an applique for a shirt. Make sure to heat set your prints if you are printing on fabric.

Some ideas? You could print a pillow, a t-shirt or the bottom border of a dress. You could also print on paper to make some simple artwork, notecards, garland, or a notebook cover for a gift!

Download my Swedish Dala Horse Print to make your own project:

Copyright © 2010 by Ashley Hackshaw/Lil Blue Boo. All rights reserved. This dala horse image is for personal and home use only. Please email me at ashley (at) lilblueboo.com for more information. Thank you for respecting my copyright! View copyright information here:

Daily Art – Paintings from Weeks 21 and 22

June 23, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

Someone asked this past week where I get my inspiration from when painting. The answer would be from everywhere. But I’ll try to explain a little.

The inspiration for this chicken came from lunch in a cafe. Sienna and I were on the way back from Tractor Supply one day and we stopped for lunch at the Blue Rooster in Waynesville, NC. Not only does the Blue Rooster have great food, but the entire restaurant is filled with chicken art. Above our booth was a rooster painted in front of a lavender geometric design that reminded me of wallpaper and a few days later I painted this:

Sitting at my window drinking coffee I watched the birds at the bird feeder one morning and thought “I should paint ALL the birds that eat from this feeder into one painting.” I could only fit four though:

Sitting at my blank canvas I randomly thought I wonder when the idea of using the mockingbird came to Harper Lee for her book. I decided to paint a mockingbird that morning:

I went fly fishing one day and this was a result:

I like how the rainbow trout turned out so I started sketching another animal…the animal that comes most natural to me to paint:

I finished it up the next day:

I recently watched the show Shetland on Netflix. It takes place on the Shetland Islands, part of Scotland, northeast of Great Britain. I was sucked in by the wide open spaces and the simplicity of the houses. I’m pretty sure that’s where this came from:

I’ve been collecting old tins for my Knothole boxes and this was one that I came across:

I painted this the same day (even though it’s not a daily painting)…a vintage Jello box:

Week 22’s daily paintings:

I had painted a floral painting that I wasn’t quite happy with so I made it into a background for a quote. I added a few layers of paint, sanded it down, added a few more, and then finally added a “happiness” quote:

A Swedish dala horse sits on a shelf in one of my bookcases. When in doubt…paint a dala horse:

When in doubt paint another dala horse:

I saw the Emerson quote first and then thought simple watercolor trees would go great with it:

Sometimes I just get out the watercolors and start pooling them into designs. Then I’ll find a quote that really speaks to me and I’ll use black sumi ink to paint it on top:

This might have been the day that Basquiat painting sold for $110 million dollars. I thought maybe if I start painting in the style of Basquiat I could sell more paintings and adopt more animals.

My aunt gave me a little bell that used to hang in her garden. Every day a cardinal comes and rings it right outside the window where I work. I don’t even have to see the cardinal to know it’s there. Yes cardinal I will paint you today:

Oh, and I’m still working on my quilted deer these days too….if it would stop raining and cool off enough. I’m a fair weather outdoor painter:

I do list some of my artwork for sale. You can find it on Etsy here.

All my daily paintings can be found indexed here!