A rustic tray for Mother's Day... with Martha Stewart Crafts

 (Intro on main blog was here )

Creating something out of reclaimed lumber is a given on my blog. 

But the challenge before me was to create something for Mother's Day with Martha Stewart Crafts by Plaid. Fun!

Being that my mom loved the outdoors, I decided to create a woodsy branch handled tray, complete with coasters, perfect for dining outdoors on the porch or in the yard down below.

Martha's craft line

Everything you could imagine arrived!

 Brushes, stencils, stencil tape, sponges, tubes, containers, cleaners, even a heat tool so you could make your own stencils. I need to play with that!

... and the shining star... the paint. Guys, the paint. Oh my.

This craft paint goes on glass, wood and fabric. And the line even has a sprayer attachment option! 

But first up, I needed to create my projects.

The tray build

1. Find a board of choice. Scrub and sand well. Cut it down to the desired size. (I just cut one in half)

2. Brace the two boards together with smaller boards, attaching them with screws from underneath. (as shown)

3. Cut down some branches the depth of the tray. Cut four smaller chunks to support the branch handles.

 4. Predrill the branch handles and branch supports.

5. Screw the long branches into the smaller supports from the tops.

6. Flip the tray over and screw the handles in from under the tray.

Done! But it's about to get a whole lot prettier. :)

Crafting with Martha  :)

I wanted to keep with a nature inspired theme, so I chose a vine styled stencil, trimmed down to work in the exact location desired.

The paint was thicker than regular craft paint which made it fabulous to work with. I even mixed two aquas and a brown together and the result was a gorgeous olive green. (not used for this project)

A spray adhesive was used on the back of the plastic stencil. This stuff was just awesome! You spray it on, and within a minute it was ready to use. The stencils were really lovely to work with. Not too flimsy and the designs were just gorgeous.

At one point I needed to reposition the stencil and there was enough adhesive left in order to do that. Cool.

A guy design (dragonfly for my son) and a girl one (doily for me) created two coaster designs, made from scraps of wood.

The stencil tape was pretty awesome. It's a little thicker than typical painter's tape and didn't leave any adhesive on the wood. Loved it.

So cute!  Darker teal was used in the middle of the dragon fly, fading to a lighter tone as the design extended out. The doily was darker around the outer perimeter and lighter inside.

All the painted graphics got hit very gently with a palm sander to further enhance the weathered effect. My plan is to use a satin sealer or wax on the works.

The tray and coaster reveal

Are you ready to go on a little picnic? Me too! 

A funky little nest styled basket layered with a mason jar vase made for a cute centrepiece.

A couple of stubby mason jars made for some cute cups! A piece of junk tied to each one with twine would have guests remembering which cup was theirs.

We'll indeed honour my mom on Mother's Day with a picnic under the big willow tree beside the creek out back.

And I can hear her words already in the most delightful of ways... "It's very Donna-ish!"

I couldn't disappoint her now could I? :)

"Thanks for making it happen, Martha! Coffee and a little junkin' later?"

Martha Stewart Crafts by Plaid

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.