ReStore Project 2 Brass Tray Table: It's All About Molds

So, the other day while shopping for my ReCreate It stuff, the lady at the counter who happens to know me quite well talked me into this super huge brass Persian tray. I completely missed it when I was shopping because it was covered up with other stuff. Now, I have a limit to how many trays I'm allowed to have and this was for sure one over my limit.

Last count put me at seven and I think I had my eyes closed when I was counting....they all require some kind of polishing at some point and are "decorations" in various places. However it was $5 and my MIL said WOW, good job, those are really expensive...and that one is Persian.

So, I decided later to use the rest of my ReCreative funds on a base. Low and behold this perfect black spindle base showed up with a wooden top for $15 and I decided to use that as the "legs" for the brass tray.

It was a pretty simple project and my only addition was really cleaning the legs & adding velcro so it would stay together unless you wanted to collapse the legs for storage.

Heck, I don't even know if they want two submissions, but like I told the assistant store manager, it's not staying at my house. It's super cute & all, but there is a limit to what I can bring home without getting divorced.

Hence I decided to shop for decorations so I can practice a bit more with some paper clay and molds and make something to decorate the top. I spent $5 between the pumpkin & the fake flower. Both I thought would be good candidates for adding some paper clay embellishments & flowers to.

 The glass bottle was my first experiment where I made the paper clay scallop & tried my hand at gluing it wet with E600. Worked like I charm so I was then able to be brave enough to try it on furniture.

Didn't even notice those did ya? They look like they are meant to be. Super fun. Anyhow, they are now meant to go on everything!

Here's the upside down top of that pot with a big paper clay molding added. The molds I got off Amazon and some appear to be for making things to go on top of cakes. Prima carries some as well.

I was pretty pleased how it turned out. The whole pot was spray painted black and then I added gold to the scallops. I removed the "plant" from the styrofoam and washed with the sprayer so now dust free, it was easy to add it back into the plant pot and then add some spanish moss with hot glue. Pretty cute for $1!

More molds on the pumpkin and added some flowers to both.

Well, I can certainly say that I've enjoyed myself. I've gotten to play with both some paper clay and transfers without spending a whole lotta dough!

The total cost in this project so far is around $23. Breaking that down:

$10 Black Spindle Base

$10 in donated product

$5 in decorations 

$5 brass tray

$3 velcro

$13 that I spent

I really kept track of the costs for fun because I wanted to prove how easy it is to create something unique and cool by upcycling.

These will be heading off to our local library to be on display for a while and then over to ReStore for the bidding. Here's to hoping they make a lot of money!