Transforming Goodwill Plates

So, I have this silver colored plate rack.

It was one of the first items I ever bought full price for my home.

I have had it since my first apartment, and unfortunately,

it has been sitting in a corner for a few years.

I used to use it for 3 picture frames that are long past gone.

I saw it laying upstairs looking pathetic and thought to myself...

SELF, you need to do something with this or get rid of it.

The hoarder collector in me picked the first option.

Then, I was on a mission...

a mission to find three red plates of the same size...

 I found some lovely plates at WalMart, 

but at 7 bucks a pop, I gently put them back....

I was planning on painting words on them anyway.

I looked...

and looked...

and looked some more.

I was DETERMINED not to pay over a couple bucks each.

That meant I needed to get them used.

Well, red plates are hard to find.

Then I saw someone (wish I could remember who)

out in blog land who spray painted their plates.

Genius Move!

Especially since we weren't going to be eating off of them...

First, I found 3 plain plates at goodwill and paid .59 each.

Next, I got a dollar can of spray paint from WM.

Then, I went to town on those plates.

I could have SWORN I took pictures of this project, but...

EH, guess not. Use your imagination.

I wanted to put the plate rack in my 50's inspired kitchen,

so I thought a food inspired quote or saying was in order.

I came up with "eat, drink, and be merry".

I blew the words up to the size I needed and

printed them out on my home computer printer.

Then I traced around the letters with a pencil on the BACK SIDE

of the paper so that when I turned it over and smoothed it down really well, I had a very faint impression of the words to use as a guide to paint the words. I used a paint pen for precision.

Does that make sense? I hope so, 

I don't know how to explain it any better.

This is why I take pictures...ugh.

Well, I do have a picture of the finished product...

Wanna see?

In hindsight (always) I wish I'd placed the

"be merry" a little more centered.

But those words were very time consuming,

and I didn't want to repaint the whole plate.

I recommend using a stencil, not the way I did it.

It worked, but it was doing things the hard way.