Tray-ding Up

We had a surprise party in August for Tom's 40th birthdayand my aunt brought a tray of cheese and crackers. It was a dollar store tray that she was more than happy to leave behind. I decided that I would break out the mod podge and fancy it up. 

First I spray painted it with Tremclad "Anodized Bronze". 

I had gone to Goodwill to find some books to take apart and glue to the tray bottom.  But they were so pretty that I just couldn't. I went through my bookshelves and found an old Alfred Hitchcock collection that no one was ever going to read and randomly cut out some pages. 

My apologies now to the person that does finally decide to read it and will never know who-done-it. 

I cut the pages in half to make them easier to work with, then tea-stained them and applied them to the tray with watered-down mod podge. An excellent tip I read online was to glue them down randomly - don't work from one side to the other - otherwise you'll end up with them all on top at one end.

I was pretty darn happy with the effect. I even added a fall leaf for some colour and texture.

But then we went to the Leonardo da Vinci Workshop exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre (a must-see if you're in the Toronto area). I fell in love with the reproductions of his writings and drawings (also the lion and the self-supporting bridge). 

I found some copies online, sepia tinted them, and printed them out. This was so much more me. Always been more the science geek than the literature geek. 

But. But. Mod podge on printer paper is not a nice look. You could see right through the paper to the printed pages below. And it was a bit smeary. Thank goodness the original mod podge provided a barrierbecause I just scraped the new pages right off without damaging the pages below. I have no pictures of this fiasco. Be glad.

I sprayed on some clear coat to protect the paper and mod podge from moisture and heat. I stared at it for a while. I just wasn't happy with the tray colour. The grey was too primer looking for my liking.

Seriously, is this ever going to end? 

I carefully taped around the edges of the tray bottom with painters tape and then taped down a leftover paint roller bag (recycle! reuse!) to protect the bottom from overspray. 

I gave the tray a few coats of ORB (oil rubbed bronze). I tried Krylon this time instead of my usual Rustoleum. I think I like the Rustoleum better because it has more shimmer. But the Krylon is cheaper, so it's a toss-up.

When it was dry I pulled off the tape and was much happier with the result. There was a better contrast between the aged pages and the dark tray. Plus the paint colour is very close to the printing colour on the paper. 

I bought some black silk cord and hot glued it around the seam between the tray and the paper bottom. It gives it a nice finished look.

The pictures don't really do it justice as the ORB doesn't seem to reflect the light very much.

Here we are all done up for the holidays with some decorations.