I love a good trinket tray.  I firmly believe that not having anywhere to stash little clutter items – like your desk-side USB collection or just a few paper clips – leads to desk-top chaos.  And we all know from Monday’s post how I feel about cluttered chaos!

There are a ton of adorable glass trinket trays out there, but for me, they always fall a little flat design-wise or they’re crazy expensive.  I wanted to try my hand at making something chic and cheap for a series of hostess gifts I’ll need for a few parties this spring.  It was surprisingly easy, quick, and inexpensive to make something that I felt was exactly what I wanted.

The materials for this project are easy enough and you may have several of these items already at home… I know that all I had to buy was the glass tray and I was ready to rock!  If you buy a few of the glass trays, than you can make several of these for next to nothing!

Materials:

• Plain Glass Trinket Tray
• Gold Leaf Paint
• Acrylic Paint
• Dry-erase marker

Start out by writing your little phrase or word onto the front of the glass tray with a dry-erase marker.  I just followed this roughly because writing in script backwards without the guide (which I did try first!) was a little rough. Then, flip the tray around and roughly trace your word with the gold leaf paint.  You could use any solid color paint if you’d like as well.  The gold leaf goes on thick, so use a thin tipped brush.

Now, have fun!  Brush a cool design over the top of the gold foil with any color you’d like.  I used a fan brush in a criss-cross pattern, but you could go more abstract with big brush strokes or even go classic with dots or stripes as well. Once the design is dry, go back over it with a solid color.  I used a light blush here which I think is so pretty against the black and gold. After the solid coat dries, you’re done!  Wasn’t that simple?

I can’t wait to make special little catch-alls for the hostesses on my list this spring… I think I might be keeping this ‘cheers’ tray for myself, however, after seeing how cute it turned out!