Hooray!! Wooden dish makeover

Two things to celebrate today!!  First: Hooray, I have 30 followers who support me in my efforts at this blogging thing.  It's not easy, so thank you.  Second: With some help of some very nice forum friends Red Shed Vintage and Suzy Lowan, I remade my very first dish.  Yeeeeeah!.  As I was pulling it all together all I could think was "Holy crap...... It worked"!!!   It's not professional by any means but I am proud of my accomplishment.  Here's what I did.

This is what the dish looked like before.  

 I was told to use acrylic paint.  I just wanted a small amount because I didn't have too much to do so I opted with the tubes.  It worked out fine.  Then I was instructed to use a walnut stain to finish it.  There are a lot of stains out there.  Who knew?  I chose this because it was a little cheaper.

 I did about 3 coats of paint letting each one dry thoroughly  before I put another on.  

 Red Shed Vintage gave me the advice to leave the inside unpainted to keep the "natural" feel to the bowl.  I am happy I did.  I just covered the very edge of the top with paint.  Let it sit and dry completlety

before starting to sand. 

 I looked at a lot of pictures of other dishes and bowls to see how and where to sand it.  I was skeptical of my work at first.  I thought it looked like leopard spots or something.  Sanding proved to be harder than I thought.  I would use a medium sandpaper.  Mine was too course.  It hurt my thumbs:(

 I lightly sanded the inside down and Suzy told me to stain it.  Spray it on evenly then wipe it off with a soft rag before it dries.  I found that if you use a courser rag it will wipe lines into your paint.

 Then I sprayed a couple of coats of stain on the back and wiped.  It turned the brick red into a beautiful color and left my sanded areas not so obvious.  This is when I became really excited.  I couldn't believe how nice the stain made it all come together.

So here it is all done.