Hi there and welcome to a simple post with a quick history lesson! Recently, I received a few dies in the mail courtesy of Spellbinders. One of these was a cute “Dala horse.” I have seen Dala horses here and there in the past, but have known very little about them. I was intrigued by their design and decided to Google their history.
The Dala Horse is an authentic symbol of Sweden. Horses arrived in Sweden some 4000 years ago as a symbol of strength and courage, and were regarded highly. Men and children learned to carve small wooden horses and it became valuable income to poorer families. The simple horses were painted brightly inspired by patterns and furniture of the central Sweden, Dalarna, region. The design became popular world wide at the 1939 New York World Exhibition where a giant Dala horse caused a sensation outside of the Swedish pavilion. Twenty thousand Dala horses were shipped to the New York area in the year following the exhibition, hence the Swedish Dala horse emerged as a symbol for Sweden (theswedishwoodenhorse.com).
This card is created as an inlaid paper pieced design. Cut the Dala Horse in red, grey, white and a print (print design is unknown from my stash). Before removing cut paper from die, place a removable label over the exposed back to secure all pieces in order. Adhere a strong tape to cover an area slightly larger than the horse itself on gray piece cardstock. Adhere white die cut frame in place. Piece each section color in place onto exposed tape to recreate Dala horse. I like to use a Crystal Katana tool to easily pick up each paper piece.
Once pieced, mat again with red and adhere to A2 folded card base. Pop any matting layer with dimensional adhesive to create more drama with this simple card. Heat emboss gold glitter sentiment. This sentiment is from the Concord and 9th Eat Cake and Celebrate set, but it appears to now be retired. Many sentiments would work beautifully with the elegance of the Dala horse. In fact, you could easily assemble all of the remaining die cut pieces to create a total of 4 cards in different color orders. Add shimmer pen and sequins as desired.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. I’m off to bask in delight with all of my children under one roof for the weekend! See you soon.
xo, Janette
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Thank you Janette for sharing the history of the Swedish Dala horse with us crafters. I love paper piercing and this card is so up my street! What a great die for this celebration and it could be used alongside other dies too to create other card designs too. Thank you for sharing it with us crafters and I hope you have a great weekend with all your kids under one roof. My two have flown the nest and it often feels quite empty but this is what they have to do as part of growing up. Both are very happy and that is all I want for them. Till next time Janette. :O)
Love the Dala horse and the paper piecing technique. Beautiful card. TFS!
Awesome card, love this horse!
Very nice horse!!