Altered Art Project: Serving Tray
Turn a flea market find into a piece of art.
How many times have you been to the flea market or to a yard sale and found an old beat up serving tray that really wasn't worthy for anything more than the garbage?
Welcome to a newly developed series of articles: Altered Art Projects! You'll find new projects featured every Wednesday, so stay tuned! If you'd like to see a particular project featured, feel free to contact me in comments or through email.
An altered serving tray:
More times than not, I've been to a flea market or yard sale and found serving trays that really shouldn't have been for sale to use "as is." They were missing a handle, broken pieces, chipped paint, holes in them or whatever else. The last time I found one, though, I looked at it with an "altered artist's eye." This brought the piece to life.
Here's what I did:
I had two different colors of interior paint left over from painting the walls and trim of my bedroom, so this particular piece would be created to hang in that room. I had to think about my theme and determine if I had everthing I needed on hand. I wanted to incorporate a beat-up book I found at the same sale. Before I could begin my project, I had to gather my supplies.
Here's what I needed:
- paper plates (to pour the paint out on)
- sponge brushes (four: one for each color)
- interior paint (for the tray)
- acrylic paint (for the book): white and gold
- gel medium (for the book and embellishments)
- pieces of textured cardboard
- pencils, pens, paper clips and an eraser (to use as embellishments
- two old book pages and a small piece of notebook paper (to use as embellishments)
- screwdriver (to remove hardware before painting)
- newspaper
- paper towels
- plastic container full of water
Once all my materials were gathered and I spread newspaper over my workspace, I was ready to get started.
Step one: I started this project by altering the book so it was one solid piece. I opened the book to the center and used the gel medium to adhere the pages together so the book would remain open flat. I "puckered" the pages so there was a gradual slope when the book dried. I set the piece aside to dry.
Step two: I removed all the hardware from the tray and set it aside. Then, I washed the entire piece down with water and paper towels, removing any loose or chipping paint.
Step three: Using the gel medium, I affixed pieces of cardboard to the background of the serving tray (where items would typically sit when carried on the tray). Then, I allowed it to dry completely
Step four: I painted the entire surface of the tray using the paint that was used for all the trim in my bedroom. Beause I was working with a dark colored tray, I had to apply two coats (allowing each coat to dry completely).
Step five: I painted the edge of the tray using the color I painted the walls of the bedroom with, then set the piece aside.
Step six: I returned to the book and painted the entire surface with white acrylic paint. Once that was complely dry, I painted the cover (just the parts that showed when looking at it straight on) using the same color the edges of the tray was painted with. After that dried completely, I applied gold acrylic paint to the edges of the pages. I set the piece aside to dry.
Step seven: Now it was time to add everything to the tray (once the book was completely dry, of course). I used gel medium to affix the book (at a slant) to the tray, then I added one book page to each side of the book's spread. Using a paper clip, I added a the piece of notebook paper to the book page on the left hand side. Then, I used the gel medium to affix the rest of the embellishments in random places throughout the piece.
Step eight: Once all the pieces were dried completely, I added two coats of gel medium to seal the entire piece, allowing each coat to dry completly between applications.
Step eight: I put all the hardware back one once the gel medium was completely dry.
The finished piece can be seen here.
