This week I am doing a makeover of a tray I found at the local Dollar Tree. This was in the Crafter’s Square section of the store with the other unfinished wood items. There were actually 2 different designs of the tray. The one I picked has an oval cutout for the area of the handle and the other one had hearts. Either one would be excellent for this project. These trays come in two sizes and this is the smallest of the two.
I wanted to create an easy ‘tile” bottom for my tray and decided to play with some card-stock from my stash. You can use any card-stock for this the weight of the card-stock won’t even matter on this project. I picked a printed sheet that has kind of a mid-century look to it. I then picked 3 solid colors that would blend with it. All of my sheets of card-stock are rather heavy. You can pick any design you want or just use solid colors. I can see this being really cool to do for different holidays also since there are always so many pretty card-stocks out at those times.
I cut the card-stock into ½” wide strips to use for the woven base and I cut more than I felt I needed. I decided to run all the patterned pieces the long way with the solid ones crossing them in a pattern. I just did a very standard weave on this but there are many other woven patterns you could do for this.
To keep everything in place I used some tape (sticky side up) on my tile to hold the patterned strips then wove the solid ones in place.
I tightened up the strips as I went so I wasn’t seeing my tile in places between them.
Once I had enough of the woven part finished and I was happy with how it looked. I slipped a sheet of parchment paper under it and gave the top of it a good coat of Satin Mod Podge. Once dry I turned it over and gave the back side a thin coat of the same Mod Podge. I did turn it right side up to dry (I didn’t want to chance the top side sticking to my work surface.
Meanwhile I got the wooden tray ready. I started by sanding all the rough areas with fine grain sandpaper. Then I wiped it down with a paper towel to remove any dust.
Now it was time to paint the tray. I went with a solid white using just some craft paint I had on hand. It did take 3 coats and I sanded the entire surface with the same sandpaper I used earlier between the 2nd and 3rd coats because the grain of the wood was raising a bit with the moisture from the paint.
I made a pattern to fit the bottom of the tray since I didn’t want to take a chance on measuring wrong but you could just measure and cut to size if you wish. I cut the woven piece to fit the bottom of the tray exactly, in fact it was fit so close I had to use a tool to remove it when I put it in to check the size.
I decided to use the Mod Podge to glue my woven piece into my tray. I knew I wanted to cover the entire bottom of the tray so that was easier that using glue. Also the Mod Podge was already on my work table. I spread a pretty good layer of Mod Podge over the bottom of the tray then smoothed my woven piece in place and spread any Mod Podge that came up from underneath evenly over the surface. This now needed to set aside to dry completely.
Next I used some gold paint to coat the inside of the oval handle cut-out. I did
Have to touch up my white a bit. I wanted just a hint of the gold showing on the flat surface.
Once everything is completely dry add a top coat of Satin Mod Podge and allow to dry.
And there we have a serving tray for the dolls to use. I am so happy with how this turned out I hope you all enjoy the project also.
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