Tag: tray

Craft Projects

GLITTER TRAY!

Jessica Smith

Have you ever thought of mixing epoxy with glitter and making magnificent things with it? I hadn’t until recently! I was trying to figure out how to spruce up a boring and shallow silver tray. It wasn’t deep enough to inset many cool objects in it, so I thought, why not mix in my favorite color of glitter?

Winning!

Yes, yes…. I chose an aqua glitter. You wouldn’t have been able to guess, right?

Glitter tray1

So for this project you need a tray, epoxy and glitter. Mix your two parts of epoxy together really well, then add glitter.

Once your concoction is thoroughly mixed, pour it into your tray.

**Important Tip: Your tray needs to be on a level surface, or your epoxy will dry with an angle to it. Bad news bears, huh?

Glitter tray2

The hardest part is waiting. Wait 72 hours for the epoxy to cure completely. It’s important for your project to cure in a warmer area, and covered up. I stuck mine under an aluminum tray for baking. It will keep dust, dog hair, etc., from sticking into your project.

Once your tray is dry, you are ready to use it. I clean mine with Clorox wipes when it gets messy — they hold up great.

Glitter tray3

Check out some of the other cool trays I have made in the past:

Look out for my next craft post — I made the CUTEST gift for my sister’s wedding, which is on Sunday 🙂

Craft Projects, Thrift Store Finds

Glammed-up circle tray

Jessica Smith

I found this ugly tray at a thrift store in New York and kind of fell in love with it. It’s old, sorta rusty, kinda ugly, and the perfect tray for filling with epoxy and fun things.

Circle tray ugly

I was combing through my craft room for things I could use to beautify this tray and I came across a jar of seed bids that I pretty much never use.

So I filled my tray with beads, covered the beads in epoxy, and three days later my ugly tray turned beautiful!

Check this out:

Circle tray pretty

I made an ever cooler tray that I’ll share with you later this week. I feel a little ingenious with the item I combined with the epoxy. It’s rather fabulous.

 

Furniture

Metalic Pedestal Side Table

Jessica Smith

I’ve had this beautiful silver tray for more than a year now, holding onto it because I knew eventually I’d come up with something cool for it. Well, I finally was inspired to tackle the tray, turning it into a side table for my navy blue chair.

My coworker and I were rummaging through a local thrift store on our lunch break last week and I found (what Rachel called) a plant stand that would become the perfect base for my table.

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A whole $5 later and I took that puppy home and got to work. First, I had to remove the top of the plant stand. Whoever built this screwed the top in right through the top itself. It didn’t look so hot, but whatevs.

IMG_3928

Once the top was off, I wanted to cut the icky part of the base off of the top. It was covered in an adhesive and was rather gunky.

IMG_3929My hacksaw quickly did the trick.

Next up, drilling through my tray. I used a drill bit that was capable of drilling through metal to put a hole smack dab in the middle of my tray.

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Then using a screw, I secured the tray to the top. In theory, I’ll eventually get a nicer screw for the top that is even less noticeable, but the one I chose you can barely see, so it works for now.

Ta da!

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Except my hubby thought it was really ugly. And the more I looked at it, especially next to the chair, the more I thought it was sorta ugly, too

So then I decided to spray paint the base black. I did the best spray paint job of my life, which involved a TON of patience. A few coats later and a coat of primer and I was almost finished.

One last step — I cut a small circle of thin wood out to sit under the tray so it wouldn’t be flimsy. After painting this black, too, I secured the table back together.

{A Smith of All Trades} Metalic Pedestal Side Table4Much better, huh?

{A Smith of All Trades} Metalic Pedestal Side Table2

It’s the perfect size for a side table, although Brian still hates it so I might relocate this table into our downstairs bathroom to hold a few decorative knickknacks and some hand lotion.

{A Smith of All Trades} Metalic Pedestal Side Table

I think it’s pretty darn cute, though. And for under $10 — heck yes!