This is My Happy Place {DIY Serving Tray Art}

Thank you all for the amazing comments on last week’s mini video tour of my studio.  I had a lot of fun making the video…oh you wouldn’t believe the outtakes.  I will have to save them all up for a blooper reel.  With your wonderful support I definitely plan to do more videos.  Thank you!  As you read this today, I am in a viewing session at Miroslavich Photography to see my head shots…eek!

Since taking the head shots and shooting the video in my mostly complete studio, I have officially started working in the studio.  It is everything I dreamed it would be and more.  Having worked the past 7+ years in windowless, lifeless cubicles, it doesn’t take much to create a nice work space.  The natural light in my studio is probably the most amazing benefit.  So glad we held out for a house with a walkout basement and tons of natural light.  I am taking advantage of the light with some house plants…compared to my cubicle days, my studio feels down right tropical!

I continue to work on styling the studio shelves…my technique involves lots of rearranging over multiple days weeks.  In the video you might have noticed an empty shelf on the top right side.  I had special plans for that space, but wasn’t able to complete the project before the photo shoot.  I made some DIY art to fill the taller wall space above the top shelf.

Without a doubt the studio is my happy place.  It is where I can think, create, write, and dream.  I created a piece of DIY art that exclaims to everyone else, who might not know, that this is my happy place :)

A while back I purchased a round mercury glass serving tray from Target to use in our new family room.  A few days later, I found the same tray at Goodwill for 1/3 the price.  The thrift store find had scratched glass that was poorly glued in the frame.  I bought it anyway, because I love the round acacia wood frame.  The mirror was only held on the back with glue and some metal clips, so I knew I could remove and replace it.  I decided to use the round frame for my DIY art project.

I removed the mirror by opening up the metal clips and using a utility knife to cut the glue around the edge.  I traced the mirror onto a 1/4″ thick piece of wood.  I found the board at Lowe’s.  They sold it in a 2′ x 2′ sheet.  I bought the cheapest type of wood they had.  I used my jigsaw to cut out the circle.  I gave the wood circle two coats of white chalk paint to create my canvas.

To make my sign I used the same technique I used for my DIY Live Laugh Love art.  I will briefly go over the steps again here.  I will say, it was much easier this time around on wood instead of stretched canvas.

I printed out my saying the size I wanted.  The letters spanned multiple pages, so I pieced them together.  I laid out the words directly on my wood circle.  Once I was happy with the placement, I used a little tape to hold the pieces of the words together.  I used two of my favorite fonts.  “This is my place” is in Helvetica.  “Happy” is in Albemarle swash.

To transfer the letters to my board, I used chacopaper.  It is exactly what it sounds like…a big waxy sheet of paper with chalk substance all over one side.  I laid the chacopaper chalk side down on my board.  I laid my words on top, starting with “This is my place”.  I used a pencil to trace the outline of each letter.

When you remove the chacopaper, the outline you traced remains in blue chalk.

I repositioned my chacopaper and placed “happy” on top.  I could see the other letters I traced through the chacopaper, making it easy to place “happy”.  I traced the outline of each letter to transfer it to the board.

Once I transferred all the letters, I got out some acrylic paint and my random assortment of paint brushes.  I am not an artist, I have just picked up brushes here and there.

Starting with “happy”, I painted in the letters.  I chose to make the word “happy” yellow.  I used Martha Stewart acrylic paint in Yellowjacket.  It took two coats of paint to fill in the letters.  A teeny-tiny round brush was great for outlining.  A wider angled brush worked well for filling in.

Once “happy” dried, I moved on to the other letters.  I painted them in Martha Stewart acrylic paint in Pool.

My painting was sloppy in some areas and in others there was some chacopaper residue.  I used white chalk paint, the same I originally painted the board with, to do touch-up.

After the letters were all painted, and before they were even dry (I was super eager), I popped the board into the serving tray frame.  Instant LOVE!  Never mind that my words are all crooked…I made it myself, and I am embracing the imperfect.

The deep, rustic frame is amazing.  The bright colors pop right off the white board.

I used 3M command strips to hang my new serving tray art on the wall above the top shelf.  I moved my DIY acacia wood hurricane (another thrift store Target find turned DIY project) to the same shelf.  The little owl is from Hobby Lobby.  On the other side is the milk can set I found at Ikea and one of my fabric wrapped spheres.

There you have it…my happy place just got a little happier with some DIY art!

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