MIY Monday #2: Mod Podge Mania!

Happy MIY Monday everyone! I am sorry I am posting this so late in the day, which makes it hard for others to join in, but I promise from now on I will post much earlier with my MIY Monday posts!

My MIY Mondays's Mission is share creative, innovative, fun and (hopefully) cheap ideas and projects for you home and life, as well as healthy and (hopefully) cheaper alternatives to everyday cooking, shopping and eating out. I hope you will join in my on my mission!

Today's MIY Monday is dedicated to something that I find fun, yet messy, yet creative: Mod Podge!

So let me take a step back and explain exactly what I am getting ready to show and share with you. Back in 2010 I had the COOLEST (and yet they don't make them anymore :/) day to day calendar, with images and quotes from Disney Animated Movies.  Now I don't know about you, but I hate to be wasteful, especially of something that cool, so naturally I kept EVERY page with the hopes of someday using them in a collage or art or something! hehe.

Well when I was moving into my new place I knew I needed some extra tables in my bed room, so that I could have a 'beading station' (for my stitch markers) and a 'winding station' (for my ball winder and scale) so that I wouldn't have to put them away and get them out every time.  I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to do before I remembered the TV tray we used to have in our living room. The perfect size! Cheap! And I could do whatever I wanted to them! And thus my idea was born.

Mod Podge TV Trays!

Materials: 

Wooden TV Trays ($8 each at Target)

Mod Podge (I recommend matte for a project like this, $7 at Hobby Lobby before coupon)

Foam brushes ($2 at Hobby Lobby)
Varnish (optional).

Images of choice you plan to decorate with. I believe it works better with paper than photos.

Step 1: 

Prepare your images. In my case, it involved about 2 hours of cutting all the images out of the pages, but it was worth it :) This step for you can involve printing images, cutting apart magazines/books, or whatever you need to do to have your images at the point where they can be glued down. 

Step 2:

Poor some Mod Podge out into a bowl you don't mind messing up and begin applying it to your tray.  The best method is to not do it all at once, and to put Mod Podge down (using foam sponge) onto the tray, place the image of choice, then more Mod Podge on top.  You also want to remove as many wrinkles as possible as you go. I didn't do this that much, but since they aren't being eaten off of, I didn't care that much.

If you want to get even more spontaneous like me, put your images in a box and randomly draw them out!

Step 3: Keep going until the whole thing is covered. It will dry as you go, and don't worry if it looks opaque, because it dries pretty clear. The more coats of Mod Podge the better, but I ended up with 2 or 3 just from all the overlapping and smoothing out. 

Step 4 (Optional): 

If you plan on eating off of these, or you know they will get a lot of wear and tear, I would recommend putting some type of sealer or varnish over the top. You can get bottles of it at Hobby Lobby for about $10. I didn't do this (yet) because I couldn't afford it at the time and the trays are not going to be eaten off of anyways..

Tray #1

Tray #2

I actually have enough Mod Podge and images left to do at least 2 more, so when I get more money I may go get a couple more trays and make some for my living room! 

I really, really, REALLY love how these turned out, I just think it's spectacular to add my Disney Flare to something so boring! 

Interested in participating in MIY Mondays? You don't have to do step-by-steps like I did, just blog about something (Preferably not knitting related, since that is what most of us already blog about) that you made yourself, be in food, home decor, crafts, etc. Then share you linky below and take the banner if you wish!