DIY serving tray

Design your own tray with a pastel look

Create a sense of well-being in your home in next to no time by introducing soft pastel colours. Add attractive touches to your home and capture the feeling of spring with the aid of just a few homemade accessories – a hand-painted serving tray, for example. Karin Luttenberg, a blogger from the Netherlands (@paper_fuel), developed this idea and designed this tray with large lettering using edding gloss paint markers in pastel shades. The shimmering hues show up beautifully on almost all smooth materials, whether light or dark. We’ve got detailed tricks and tips to help you create your own personalised template, giving you everything you need to copy this creative idea.

Categories: Special gifts
Kitchen
Products: Paint markers
Materials: Metal
Plastic and foil
Difficulty: A bit more challenging
Downloads: Images (ZIP)

Step-by-step

Step 1

First of all, plan your design and sketch it on the sheet of paper, making it the right size to fit your tray. Our example shows a jumble of big, bold, colourful letters. We chose the colours pastel rose (colour code 138), pastel green (137), pastel yellow (135) and pastel blue (139). You can colour in your sketch to see how it will look, but only if you want to.

Step 2

Turn over the sheet of paper with the sketch and, on the back, trace over the outlines of the letters using the soft pencil. You only need to draw over the outlines, not the whole letters.

Step 3

Cut out the template to fit your tray, then turn the paper over again. Place it on the tray with the pencil lines facing downwards. Now trace over all the letters using the hard pencil, pressing firmly to make an imprint of the outlines on the tray.

Step 4

Remove the paper – and you’ll see that your sketch has been transferred.

Step 5

Now it’s time for the decorating part. Before you begin, you need to activate the gloss paint marker: shake the marker vigorously with the cap on; remove the cap, place the nib on absorbent paper and pump it up and down gently a few times until ink appears in the nib. Now you’re ready to get started. And after use, always store the marker horizontally.