Tea Tray Time

by Maggie Kelleher

What do you like to drink with your coffee cake? Tea? Coffee? Water? Chocolate milk?

My favorite might just be tea (or maybe that's just because I am starting to feel a cold coming on). And I decided this weekend to make something to make my tea-drinking experience easier and more fun. What I love about this project, though, is that it could be used for any of the above drinks or just about anything at all. 

What is the "this" I keep talking about? It is my tea tray! The fun weekend craft I made for storing and serving my favorite hot drink.

I thought this would be perfect to share with you today because not only does it make breakfast in bed just adorable and provide the perfect place to store all of your tea cups, but it makes entertaining more fun as your friends "oooh" and "ahhhh" at your hard work as you serve them.

How can you make it for yourself? Believe it or not it's actually super easy and fun. A friend and I were able to make the two nestled trays in one night and had a great time chatting and painting while doing it.

How did we start? With some wooden trays (just like these, I got two nestled ones from Michaels last May), acrylic paint (I used Bluegrass Green and Coral Reef pink for a two-toned look), paintbrushes, Mod Podge, and printed copies of your favorite pictures. 

First we cut and placed the pictures we had printed in place to decide how we wanted them to look. (I found the images on Pinterest and the "Home" decal in an old scrap-booking kit I had lying around the house.)

Then we painted the outer and inner walls of the trays with the acrylic paint, making sure not to splotch the green where the pink should be and letting it dry fully before each coat of paint.

The next step was to start placing the pictures and sealing them to the bottom of the tray. We did this with the Mod Podge. This is a bit difficult, but we found it best to start with a corner, paint a little Mod Podge on the tray in that corner, place the image over it, and smooth it out. I would then lift up the rest of the image and do the same until the whole thing was sealed from below. Don't forget to smooth out the wrinkles!

Lastly, we sealed all of our hard work in place with another coat of Mod Podge over the entire tray. This made the tray water resistant, protected the paper from tearing, and (because I used gloss Mod Podge) gave the whole tray that glossy shine. 

Finally, I took my trays out for a spin, setting them up on the bed with tea and coffee cake to get myself excited about breakfast in bed and give myself a treat for all of my hard work.

As I write this I am looking at my new trays, snugly holding all of my mugs and teas in the prettiest storage, as I wait for the next time I can pull them out and show them off. 

What do you think? Would you like to make a tea tray for yourself? We would love to see your work if you do! Stay connected with us on social media and not only can you get more fun ideas like this one, but you can win a free coffee cake to try out your own tea tray with the ultimate breakfast in bed! 

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