Monogram Wreaths Made With Dollar Store Trays

13 Materials
$5
1 Hour
Easy

I think we've all seen the decorative rounds made from wood, plate chargers, pizza pans and the like, but how about using a serving tray?? Hmmm, it might just be another easy option so I was game to try it and you might too once you see how quickly it can be put together. Here's a popular farmhouse styled looking round made with a simple plastic, wood grained tray and some buffalo check ribbon to accent the center monogram.

Monogrammed Round

With only a few skills and supplies required here I think that makes this project adaptable and affordable and best of all attractive!

Serving Tray

Starting off I chose this plastic serving platter, lightweight, nice wood grain pattern and costing just $2.00, I couldn't go wrong with that price. I bought a few of them with no set plan in mind other than to try to create something like what others were doing with pizza pans!

Children's Foam Mat Letters

The idea of creating monogram came with these foam letters that I picked up at a Thrift store. They were inserts to go into a square foam play mat but they were now orphaned letters, enter me to bring them home.

Prepped to Paint

To tone down the bright colors I went with a classic black for the base although a previous attempt with the letter G I had painted with navy interior house paint. The house paint worked perfectly on the foam but I now wanted both letters black so I used multi-surface craft paint, it worked perfectly too.

Painting the Foam

The paint worked well but it did take a few layers especially with the more porous sides and all of that textured surface.

Black Base Coat

Speaking of texture and seeing it painted a solid dark color I thought that maybe I could highlight it now with white paint.

White Top Coat

The white highlight worked so good on the first letter that I moved forward to complete the second letter. For this technique I let the base coat dry thoroughly before quickly brushing the white top coat on. You'll see I have a water spray bottle there and a rag to complete this paint on and rub off process.

Wiping the Top Coat Off

You'll see the texture in this letter is more fine and intricate than the other letter which meant I needed to do more intensive rubbing to get the white off! Recall this letter already had a thorough coat of navy house paint before I started this process? I don't know if those extra layers of paint or the more intricate pattern caused the paint to rub off to the bare letter color. Ohhh noooo! Back to basics, this letter I chose to just keep a solid black because of the paint mishap.

Drilling Holes

Back to the serving tray, not much preparation is required to turn this into a hanging sign, using a drill with a 1/4" drill bit I easily created four holes at the top. Two lower ones will be to hang it with jute string and the two top ones will be used to secure a floral swag onto the top edge of the tray. To create the hanger just feed the string from back through to the front and tie a knot to prevent it from slipping back through. Next create enough string length at the back to hang it from and feed through to the front of the other hole, tie the second knot and cut. No worries on the knots appearing at the front, final touches will cover all of that up.

Assorted Floral Stems

Heres a sampling of florals from a previous project but for this project I would chose broader plants(1)for the base working up to smaller more delicate florals(4) to create a swag. I'd also use smaller amounts of stems such as 5 and 6 for fillers, to create varied interest in the arrangement.

Customizing the Swag Width

Though most stems are long I tend to create a mock up and determine the width including an overlap as seen above and then cut off the excess. The wired stems are purchased straight but they can be bent to create a customized curve for each individual project.

Swag and Bow

Here I just overlapped 3 types of florals, a fern base, a more delicate greenery and some small cream floral stems. They are secured first at the center overlap point with floral wire or you can substitute with a garbage twist tie. The bow is made using wired ribbon by creating a first tail and six loops and a second tail, again secured in the middle with floral wire. Once it's formed it can be hot glued onto the greenery part, one last step I did was created a tiny ribbon loop and secure it with hot glue in the middle of the bow to hide the wire. You may also cut the ends on an angle to create the v, this will help prevent any fraying of the ribbon. It's attached to the tray with gardening wire in my case but a twist tie again is the perfect substitute!

Second Monogrammed Plaque

Here's the finished look of the two toned letter B, it ties in beautiful with the two toned buffalo check ribbon I think!

Alternative Style

So the last one I'm sharing was the very first monogram tray that I made, it was a gift for a friend. The sunflowers, the original color of the letter K and coordinating plaid ribbon were a beautiful compliment to her house color scheme. The knots for the hanger are visible here but not overly distracting since the jute string is the same neutral tone as the wood grain. So as mentioned at the outset there's ways to adapt and personalize this project to suit your home decor style and preferences. I'm glad I could not only create these for friends but that I could share the process with all of you. Thanks for visiting!

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