By the end of last summer I was beginning to think that I wasn’t going to have any sleds to paint this year!

I hadn’t found any at garage sales, and usually I find at least 2 or 3.

Last year I had 4 sleds to paint.

That was a good year!

Maybe I should clarify that to say that I hadn’t found any affordable sleds at garage sales.  I’d seen a few that were priced in the $60 and up range, and I don’t even charge that much for mine once they are painted.

But then I found a broken one at a late season garage sale, and then another one at my friend Jackie’s sale in the fall.  Then I also remembered that I had a different sort of sled out in the workshop that I found in early summer.  I’d forgotten about that one!

So once again I pulled out my favorite stencils and got to painting.

First up, the broken one.

Fortunately, whoever owned this sled before me had already gone to the trouble of cutting out a replacement for the missing slat.  I’m not sure why they didn’t go one further and actually attach it, but my handyman Ken made quick work of that.

Then I painted just the slats in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry I pulled out my random selection of stencils to see what would fit.

This is really the most challenging part of stenciling on these sleds, finding wording that fits on the slats.  I have a selection of various stencils that I take lines of wording from for the sleds.  All three of these lines are from different stencils.  I’ve had most of them for quite a few years now, so I’m sorry but I don’t have sources for them.

I stenciled ‘Saint Nick’s’ in Dixie Belle’s Honky Tonk Red, ‘Christmas Trees’ in their English Ivy, and ‘cut your own fresh tree’ in Coffee Bean.

The next sled is the one I found at my friend Jackie’s sale, but somehow I neglected to get a ‘before’ photo of it.  But I didn’t have to do too much to this one aside from giving it a good clean, and then painting it.

That ‘Bed & Breakfast’ stencil is one of my favorites, but again, I couldn’t tell you where I got it.  But no matter, I’m sure you could find something similar out there if you do a little searching online.

I painted this sled in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, then added the bottom section of wording in their Coffee Bean.  I also added a shadow of the wording to the first two slats using Coffee Bean.

That shadowing really adds a lot of depth to a stencil, and it really helps make those words pop even though they are in that warm white.

It’s super simple to do, just stencil the design first in the shadow color, in this case the Coffee Bean.  Then move your stencil just a tad up and over and stencil again in the final color.

Last up is this sled I found earlier in the year.  This one is more of a toboggan, rather than a sled.

First I removed that bright yellow rope from the sides, that wasn’t going to work with my aesthetic at all.

Then after giving it a good cleaning, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  The stencil is from Wallcutz and I used Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth for the stenciling.

I sealed it up with some clear wax, and the I pulled a length of old rope out of my stash and strung that through two holes at the top of the toboggan.

Although most of us think of sleds as an outdoor sort of item, I think they can be adorable hung inside as Christmas decor too.  When I brought these in to the shop, I hung the Bed & Breakfast sled in a ‘bedroom’ vignette and it looks great (and P.S., isn’t that bed gorgeous?).

That being said, I do have a sled that I’ve hung onto for myself and I’ve used in in several different spots outside.

Hanging on the potting shed …

Hanging on the carriage house …

Or just leaning on a bench.

So many options!

What would you do with a painted sled?  Leave a comment and let me know.