Tray by the Sea

When you have beautiful paper, like the By The Sea collection from Graphic 45, creating an elegant piece of home decor is really quite simple.

I started with an old tray I had picked up at Goodwill, painted a bright blue, decided I didn’t like it, and stashed it in a closet for a year. For this project, I pulled it out again and covered that blue with white.

Then, I added a layer of Distress Crackle Paint. Once dry, I used a dauber to add a bit of coffee Archival Ink to help highlight the cracks and crevices.

Then, I covered the tray with paper. (the gold is some Halloween paper from Reminisce).

I sanded a bit of the paper off, which also took off various layers of paint. There are even a few spots where some of that blue came through. It created a beautiful finish!

Once all covered in paper, I added a thin layer of Glastique with a paintbrush to the entire tray to seal it. The Reminisce paper bubbled with the liquid, so I would not recommend using it in this application … but I made it work.

Next, I added some fibers a friend gave me. The burlap ribbon is from Michael’s. The twine is from May Arts. I’m not sure where the other fibers came from.

I tied lots of them to the ends of the tray. they are so soft and match so well!

I love this tray! It matches my living room perfectly and is filled with all of my favorite colors. Thank you, Graphic 45 for the papers and Anna for the fibers!!