Decorative plates, made of everything from antique china to painted pottery, are a popular decorating accessory. Kitty Bartholomew, host of HGTV's Kitty Bartholomew: You're Home, meets with artist Joan Justeson to get a quick lesson in inexpensively personalizing a plain glass plate with decoupage and paint. The result is an impressive Asian-style plate that looks like a fine antique. Materials:
Glass plate
Laser copies of favorite images
Small sharp scissors
Yes® glue
Paintbrush
Waxed paper
Brayer
Sponge for cleanup
Cellulose or sea sponge for sponge painting
Gold metallic paint
Black spray paint
- Choose images to glue on the plate, and have laser copies made at a copy center. Joan chose a picture of an Asian sculpture for the middle of her plate and Chinese lettering for the border. If necessary, make a paper template of the center or border of the plate, and have the images enlarged or reduced to the template size.
- Carefully cut out the laser-printed images.
- Brush glue on the front of the first image (figure A), and place it face up on the bottom of the plate. Place a piece of waxed paper over the glued image, and use a brayer to smooth air bubbles out of the glue (figure B). Remove the waxed paper, and clean the back of the plate with a damp sponge. Apply any additional images using the same method.
- When all the images are in place and dry, sponge-paint areas of the back of the plate with metallic-gold paint, allowing some areas to remain unpainted. Use a cellulose sponge or a sea sponge, depending on the look you want. Joan used a cellulose sponge for this project.
- When the gold paint is dry, spray-paint the entire back of the plate with black enamel, and let it dry. Contain the spray paint by using a cardboard box as a mini spray booth (figure C).
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