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| Candies and Chocolates: $80 |
I have a slight (serious) obsession with housewares. Vases, cake stands, platters, pitchers and more...I love them all. Seeing as I live in a shoebox apartment with my husband and our two dogs, I don't have room for much more. But, just because I don't have room for them doesn't mean I can't swoon all over the best NYC has to offer. In my opinion, the John Derian store in the East Village has it all. If I could, I'd buy about a thousand of these decoupage trays. To do that, however, I'd need about a million bucks.
Lucky for me, I can get crafty with the best of them. I know the world of decoupage might bring up images of crazy craft ladies or Girl Scout camp, but to me it's a simple solution to achieve an otherwise un-achievable serving tray.
I set out to replicate a John Derian tray and purchased a clear 5x8" glass tray for about seven bucks from here. One thing to remember with decoupage is that the thinner the paper you use, the better the final product. If there are slight curves in the glass, and if your paper is stiff, it will wrinkle when you start 'podging.
I used white tissue paper and a magazine (FOOD & WINE, of course!). Food images always create beautiful color patters. Before you pass over that photo of beets or green beans, try cropping it to create a beautiful abstract image. I cut about 20, 1" petal shapes, but feel free to cut any shape, size, or color. To add a different shape and texture, I cut the white tissue paper into 20, 1" circles. 
To truly mimic the fancy decoupage trays, you MUST have silver or gold paint. I love gold accents, so I taped off and painted random sized gold stripes.
Now this is where things get exciting. I wanted to make my tray a little different, so I printed out my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe on plain copy paper and cut it into thin strips. Then, using a paintbrush and the Mod Podge, I glued the recipe strips (face down, of course) then painted over them to seal it all in.
The rest is up to your imagination! I arranged the clippings by color and created a wave pattern. A couple tips: Don't use too much glue or your paper will wrinkle and make sure to seal it all in with one final thin layer of glue.
Trim and seal the edges with the Mod Podge, then paint the edges with your gold or silver paint. You could also use a metallic paint pen.
And there you have it! Your very own decoupage tray. Now, how great would it be to give someone this homemade gift (recipe included). You should probably throw in the cookies, too!
