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There have been some requests for instructions on how I made my horse silhouettes, so I thought I would get this tutorial up first.
 
(For the full living room tour, click here.)
 
 
They came together pretty easy.  I first saw a picture of this art here.  I believe it is originally Pottery Barn.  I debated doing other shapes for my silhouette but then decided since my husband and I met on a dude ranch, the horses would actually be quite fitting.
 
First thing first.  I measured the wall sections where I wanted the horses to go.  Then I sent the hubs out to the garage to plank some wood for me to the size I wanted.
 

I wanted the wood to look like it was varying shades and different pieces of wood so I taped up sections of all different widths.

Then I scrounged through my husbands stain drawer, and started wiping on stain.  Once the strips of varying stains were dry, I ran some walnut stain over the whole thing.

While all that dried, I pulled out my electronic cutter – the Silhouette SD.  This was a bit tricky because my cutter would certainly not cut the horse the size I needed it.  So I cut it out in bits and pieces and taped it all together.  I used cardstock for my paper.

Then, I soaked the back of my horse with spay adhesive.  It is important to get every square inch really good.  You don’t want the paint to sneak under your paper.

After I made sure the horse was stuck to the wood good enough, I took a can of white glossy spray paint and painted the whole thing.I was too impatient to wait for it to dry – so I peeled the horse right off.
Once it was dry, I took a sander to the whole thing, scuffing to my pleasure.

 

It really turned out better than I had hoped.

So while I went to do the second horse, I had always intended to do the same method, so my silhouette was already cut out.  However, when I stuck the paper horse on I realized how much I would like it if the staining and painting was reversed for the second piece.

So at that point, I took a pencil and traced the horse shape onto the stained wood.  Then I carefully hand painted the horse on in white, and sanded after so more wood grain would show through the stain.  This method definitely took longer.

Had I known I was doing this beforehand, I imagine I would have kept the outer part of the silhouette that I cut out, and then spray painted like I did the first one.

Does this make any sense?


But now that it is all done, I am quite pleased with my horses.

I really do love making my own affordable art.

Let me know if you have any further questions.
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12 Comments

  1. So creative with your post – measured the wall sections where I wanted the horses to go. Then I sent the hubs out to the garage to plank some wood for me to the size I wanted.

  2. I absolutely love these – awesome! I wish you had these for sale, I would definitely purchase! Very cool!

  3. I ABSOLUTLY LOVE THE ART! beautiful, i want to make one of these, would love to feature them, if that would be ok please let me know<br />lauren

  4. This is amazing! I love this! Thank you sooo much for the tutorial! I&#39;m going to do one for my daughters birthday party! I&#39;m excited! I have a cricut but I think I&#39;m going to turn my iphone into a projector with the horse image and trace it on a paper and cut it out. Somedays I wish I could trade my Cricut for a Silhouette but I did manage to get Sur Cut A lot I just need a windows

  5. Thank you for saying that you used your Silhouette to make this!! I&#39;d been looking for a horse shape online for awhile to also try to replicate this piece, and couldn&#39;t find anything I liked. When I saw your site, I fell in love with the horse shape you used and was able to find it on Silhouette&#39;s site still! Thank you!

  6. Hi I love these! Would you sell two like this to me? Do you take custom order?<br />Thanks<br />Deborah@axiomrealestate.com<br />

  7. I love this. My husband and I are from Kentucky so the horse is a reminder of home. Plus my grandparents used to have some huge horse print in their living room over their couch and this would be a great tribute. Thanks for the tutorial. Now I know what to do with the old pallets I wouldn&#39;t let him throw away.

  8. I love Arabians and own 4 real live Arabian horses. So I want to make the horse art on the right. But I have a long way to go since I barely know what<br />Silhouette Art is. ha ha