Hello and welcome! I will be posting about many subjects as I am constantly inspired by all the gorgeous pins I find over on Pinterest. I like to reuse items I own as much as possible, transforming them into something pretty and functional. I am fairly thrifty when it comes to my buying habits; if I find something cute for a cheap price over something expensive, I will buy it. This doesn't mean that the quality is not good and I have some cheap clothes that have lasted me a few years. I don't have a massive budget so I look to fashion bloggers, craft bloggers, etc. to see what I can remix, reuse, and make feel new again. This will be a journey for me, helping to develop my sense of style (which has been constantly evolving over the years), and to inspire me to create my own recipes and twists on classics.
I love to receive comments, hints, stories from you all, so please do not feel shy!
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Baking tray makeovers - Part one
If like me you have some baking trays lurking in the back of your cupboard, don't throw them out, transform them with new uses.
I had 2 trays that I no longer used, the non stick is coming off and they are a little bent in places. I started looking around Pinterest for some inspiration and got just what I was looking for! The first makeover is for the smaller of the 2 trays. The second tray makeover will be coming in another blog post.
I like to plan out the meals I am going to make for the following week. It enables me to be more creative and stops us getting into a food rut! I use applications like Evernote to jot down ideas as well as just opening notepad and jotting them down there. This has become a bit of a pain when all I want to do is remind myself of the meals ahead. I decided I needed a menu board! I found these pins from blog Life{Sweet}life, Not Just Decorating and this pin from Pinterest.
The first uses menu cards which is a cute idea but I could imagine I would get pretty fed up of printing them out all the time! Still I liked the idea of a chalkboard with some cuteness! The second uses an old window which is a fabulous idea if I had one knocking around and the final pin (no link to the original blog post) showed what could be done with cookie sheets/baking trays and a little chalkboard paint.
I will say now that the total cost to me for these 2 projects was 79p as I had all the other items already on hand! However I have shown links below where you can buy the items.
So initially I was going to make 2 chalkboards, one for menus and one for memos. I scrapped the memo idea and got to work on the menu board.
As you can see the trays were in a pretty grim state!
They are blackened in the corners and the non stick has completely gone from some areas. First things first, sanding some of the crud off!
I borrowed some sand paper from the other half and got to work! This was pretty messy, lots of fine black dust getting on my hands and work surface! You may want to put some paper down and protect your clothes (I did neither! Oops!).
Here's the tray all nicely sanded
I am sure if I continued eventually all the black stuff left in the corners would have come off but it was pretty flat by then and I was satisfied that the chalkboard paint would cover it up.
I need some new brushes but managed to find a large flat one which did a pretty decent job.
I gave the tray at least 3 coats. Some of it looked pretty good after 2 but 3 sealed the deal!
Once this was completely covered I got my pencil and ruler and roughly marked out where the writing and lines needed to be. I wanted a home made look so some of the spacing is not even. I wrote in pencil the days and title before painting over them. Be careful not to press too hard as the pencil can take some of the paint off. I used DecoArt Light antique white. I have used this for a few projects and like that it is less stark than a bright white paint.
Here it is all painted! I decided that full lines would look too much on such a small tray so went for some little dots instead!
As the bottom gap under Sunday is so big and the board looks a bit plain I decided to add some little details to it. I already had these wooden hearts on hand so hot glued those to the front. You could use anything really to pretty it up. I chose yellow as it matches my kitchen. I also purchased a metre of pretty yellow ribbon to hang the board up. I bought a metre where half a metre would have done but I am sure I will find uses for the rest!
Taking guidance from the other half, I set the work on drilling the holes. As the tray has a lip I decided that's where the holes should be. Firstly I measured out where the holes should go then took a 2mm drill bit to drill a couple of small holes. This allows you to pin point the location of the holes more accurately. I used a block of wood under the lip to drill into. My hubby helped by holding the other end of the tray to keep it steady.
Next I got a 4mm drill bit and drilled again in the same location. Very easy to do though they were left a bit rough round the edges so we rubbed a drill bit around the holes to neaten them up. I threaded the ribbon through the front to the back and tied them in a big knot. There is no chance the ribbon is slipping out of the holes! All that was left to do was hot glue the hearts and it was done!
Here it is all pretty hanging in my kitchen.
This was a very simple project and I am really pleased with it. Our menu is always on display so I know what I am planning to cook!
Come back for part 2 where I turn the bigger tray into a lap tray.
I get most of my supplies from Hobbycraft but I've added links to other places to purchase the items used.
I bought my ribbon from Hobbycraft but you can get ribbon by the metre in most fabric shops
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