I did a guest post on Fizzy Jayne Makes blog back in March for National Craft Month…. here’s the actual post on my blog in case you missed ……
I posted before on decoupage and using it on upcycling projects, you can read about it here. With this project, I had some plate chargers, you know the ones that make an appearance at Christmas. Well, we had a bunch of these that we never used & I was going to dump, when I thought hmmmm maybe they could be used. So I decided to try and cover them with some paper and make them seem like they old and vintage looking.
So here’s the plate before – just your regular silver plastic plate charger, nothing fancy with this one. You can get this in the Euro shop, they are not expensive.
And here’s the after. I did 4 plates with 4 different looks using napkins on some and scrapbook paper on others. I wanted the plates to look old and worn, kinda vintage looking. What do you think?
What to know how I did it? Well here’s a little quick recap.
Napkin Plates:
The aim was to make the plates look old & worn, vintage looking ……
- I cleaned and lightly sanded the plate
- I painted the plate in white. I did two coats to give it a good coverage.
- I separated the napkins and only used the first layer – see below, it’s important you only use the first printed layer. I tore the pieces I wanted to use and played around with the design. (On the green plate plate I didn’t tear it up I just carefully placed it on the plate and glued it bit by bit & blended it in.)
- I then used some decoupage glue ( you could use some watered down PVA or mod podge but I find this glue the best with napkins ) and glued the napkin pieces. They wrinkled in places but I didn’t mind as I think the wrinkles make them look old.
- At the edges, I used some bitumen and rubbed it along with my finger. You could use some dark wax but be careful, a little goes a long way. I used some on the inner rim as well.
- Next up I used some rice paper (rice paper is a little bit thicker than napkins and easier to use I find ) I had some with “home sweet home” printed on it. I tore around the print and glued this on top of the napkin and lightly sanded it to blend it in. I used some bitumen on this as well to age it.
- On the blue plate, I used some gold leaf around the edges
- I sealed the plates with some clear varnish and lightly sanded them when they were was dry. I repeated this process until I was happy with the result. Be careful here as you don’t want the paper to tear. Just lightly sand it!
scrapbook PLATES:
- I cleaned and lightly sanded the plate
- I soaked the paper in water and peeled off the back, I did this as the paper was a bit too thick to use and it was easier to use if the paper was a bit thinner.
- Using some decoupage glue I glued the paper down to the plate and rubbed it into the plates rim and all around. Now it did wrinkle a bit here and there, but as i wanted it to look a bit old and worn I didn’t mind this. Wrinkles can be good!
- Now the paper didn’t cover the plate fully, there was gaps on each side where the paper didn’t cover. So I used some regular acrylic paint and blended the paint the colour of the paper. I sanded and distressed this until I got the look I wanted.
- Next up, I used some gold leaf. I just placed the glue on the parts I wanted the gold leaf to appear, this was in and around the edges of the plate. I wanted the plate to look old and that the paper was peeling and coming away. I used some bitumen to make the paper look old in places as well. You could use dark wax or even an old tea bag to stain the paper.
- I let it to dry and coated it again with the glue to seal it and I lightly sanded it afterwards, the paper part only. I did this a couple of times to make sure everything blended in together.
Note: these plates are only for decorative purposes, just a wipe of a cloth will keep them clean.
So that’s it, hope you enjoyed the process, if I have left anything out or you need to know more please comment below.
So have you done any upcycling lately?
Till next time!
Enjoy Maura x
