Upcycle a Tray Into a Magnetic Memo Board

Here's what I started with. The tray was probably once beautiful, but the paint was chipped.

I lightly sanded the peeling paint and cleaned it well.

I spray painted it light blue.

Keep in mind that decoupage is transparent. My light blue color went perfectly with my paper napkins, where a black would have shown through.

Peel the napkins apart. Some are 2 ply and some are 3 ply. This napkin was 2 ply, so only one layer needed to be removed.

Removing the white layers makes the napkin thinner and easier to work with!

Lay the napkin in place and use a pencil to mark where to cut around the edges.

Dry fit the cut napkin. (I wasn't aiming for perfection here.)

Use a foam brush to paint on a thin layer of decoupage glue. You can also use watered down glue, but I really prefer the already mixed type for convenience sake.

Apply the napkin, smoothing as you go. There will be wrinkles and that's fine. When it dries, the ones left are barely noticeable.

Let the glue dry. If you want to protect your work, add an additional layer of glue on top of the napkin.

For the back, I glued on a sawtooth picture hanger using E6000 glue. I've used this method in the past and after 10 years, it's still going strong.

For an extra bit of fun, I added some scrabble magnets. Use scrabble tiles and add magnets to the back with E6000 glue.

I love how my memo board turned out!

For more easy DIY projects like this one, be sure to check out my blog where I share creative ways to decorate on a budget.