As you can see, I haven't had a lot to talk about since my last post because we haven't made much progress with the wedding planning.
Although this post isn't directly related to our wedding, I thought I would share a cute DIY project that I did for my friend Katie's birthday. Our wedding will be as much DIY as possible since we are trying to save money. So this project is similar to something I would like to have at my wedding and maybe you could use as well! Here is my inspiration for this project.
Before I tell you what I made for Katie, I need to first tell you that we are both obsessed with Pinterest. We have seen this project in various forms on Pinterest for months now, so I thought I would FINALLY do a project that I pinned! This is a two-tier organizer that could be used for makeup, jewelry, cupcakes--anything! In this case I used it to hold her birthday cupcakes and gifted it as a jewelry organizer (although it is really more of a jewelry display, as it offers little organization, lol).
Things you will need:
2 plates (one larger than the other)
Candle stick holder (or anything you want to use to hold one plate on top of the other-my inspiration used a soup can)
Acrylic paint & paint brush
Hot glue gun
Step One
Pick your plates. I looked around at my local Goodwill trying to find plates that had a fun pattern on them. Of course I couldn't find anything I liked so I headed to Dollar Tree. The plates I found were just glass with a textured pattern on the bottom side. I got my candle stick holder from here as well. I just loved the look of this instead of a can, but it's your choice!
(I got ahead of myself and glued the candlestick on the large plate before I decided to paint the plates and take pictures!)
Pick your paint! I already had a ton of acrylic paint that I have collected from doing various DIY and school projects. You can get a small bottle of acrylic paint at Walmart for less that $1 each. I chose two different shades of coral, because that's Katie's favorite color. (If you aren't painting your plates you can skip to step five!)
Step Three
Paint your plates! I painted the bottom side of the plates to avoid scratching the paint when it's being used and I wanted it to remain glossy. If you are artistic, you can paint whatever kind of design you want on there. I am not an artist so I decided to paint the top a lighter coral and the larger plate a darker shade. I gave each plate 4 or 5 coats of paint, but you can make this decision based on how vibrant you want the color to be.
Step Four
Bake your plates. This part kind of scared me because I really had no idea how these plates would hold up in the oven since they're from Dollar Tree. Pinterest says that you should:
1. Place you plates in a cool oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Once preheated, bake for 30 minutes.
4. Turn the oven off and let the plates sit in the oven until it cools off.
I'm not sure if it was the plates that I had or what, but the oven was starting to get a little smokey about 10 minutes into the process so I lowered the temperature to 250 degrees because I was afraid of what might happen!! Apparently baking the plates helps set the acrylic paint and makes it stay on there. I can't say if it does this or not because I was too afraid to test it and then have to repaint it if it wiped off.
Step Five
After your plates have cooled, you can finally start assembling your tiers! I didn't take a picture of the hot gluing process, oops. Use your hot glue gun on the bottom of the candle stick holder (or whatever you're using as a separator). Place this in the center of your larger plate and press down. Give it a few minutes to set up so it doesn't slide around. Hot glue the top rim of the candle stick holder and place the small plate on top of that!
It's as simple as that! Enjoy :)
Here's a picture with the cupcakes on it..
and with her jewelry on it..
If you want to follow me on Pinterest, click here :)
