It's Time To Start Thinking About Gifts!

It is indeed time to start selecting gifts, unless you are like my mother and your holiday shopping is already done! (Really...it amazes me, that kind of planning ahead. When I called her one day last week she was busy wrapping presents!)

To get prepared for the big day I've been working on a couple DIY gift ideas to share, and was also asked by my friend Rene, who writes the blog Cottage and Vine, if I would share a few gift ideas for the fashionista. Visit her blog to see that list, and of course a link to that post is being sent to my husband! (Though not to my mom, obviously.)

Now to the DIY gift project. This year I wanted to come up with a gift project that was simple enough to get the kids involved with. And what perfect timing, during some time off from school last week Isabella and Max had fun decorating a bunch of trays that they will be giving as gifts.


To begin I ordered unfinished trays from the Oriental Trading Company.

Then I did some prep work on the project the day before the kids were home, applying a layer of primer on the trays followed by a light sanding.


Earlier Isabella and I had visited Michael's to pick up the rest of the supplies. Here we found the rectangular tray pictured above and picked up a few of them to decorate as well. We then selected a packet of decorative papers by Amy Butler to line the tray surfaces and the last item needed was a bottle of Mod Podge. As I've never decoupaged anything, I picked up a Martha Stewart glue as well as a bottle of Mod Podge to see which I liked better.


The next step was to paint each tray, leaving the tray surface itself unpainted. After a couple years of endless DIY projects one tends to build a nice collection of paints! Looking through the stack of partially used cans in the garage, we found a number of paint colors that looked great with the decorative paper designs.


After the trays were painted, Isabella selected a paper design to coordinate with the color of each tray. She was a great help through this whole project, getting almost as excited as I did when we saw how great our paint colors looked with the various prints! Once the specific print was picked for each tray, the inner dimensions of the tray were traced on the paper and cut out. (This is about the time we lost Max's interest...and off he went with his Dad!)


Love the blue paint color with the brown print...


...and the gray paint looks dramatic with this print featuring green, pink, ivory and gray.


And how about stripes for the tray painted with Amazing Gray?


After all the trays had been painted and pieces of decorative paper cut out to line them, glue was brushed onto the surface of each tray.


The paper was positioned...


and placed over the glue.


Finally the paper was pressed firmly onto the tray surface, making sure there were no air bubbles and the paper was flush along the edges.


We had a nice little assembly line going and soon there was a pretty collection of trays covered with paper. We took a break, coming back after the glue had fully dried.


Once the glue was dry, the last step was to cover the paper and tray surfaces with a protective finish. I initially tried to cover the paper with another layer of the glue, but it left a lot of bubbles and I didn't like the look! I wiped it off and tried again using a water based polyacrylic, which worked great. One of the best parts of this project? Having a helper...with Isabella working with me on each step I was able to take pictures with both of my hands!









These little trays are perfect for placing keys in an entry, a glass of water in a bedroom, or jewelry in a closet or bathroom. They make cute little gifts and, even better, can be made with kids as gifts for grandparents or teachers. I chose a collection of colorful papers, but saw endless ideas while shopping for papers at Michael's...from seasonal to more simple and even some great geometric patterns. And what about using a photograph?! (My husband just gave me that idea...smart guy!)

Tomorrow I have a few more trays to show you, ones that Max and Isabella helped make using paints. They are pretty cute as well...