Crafty Bitches: Tray Love

The only thing I love more than a good DIY project is crafting with friends. This past weekend, I spent the day with my pal Kendall (you may remember her from this fun crafting project) and we tackled a fun, easy and quick cute DIY tray. Kendall is a great friend who loves to craft and is the only other person I know who loves West Elm as much as me.

So, let's get to it.

The pinspiration came from this little diddy:

(source)

It's actually a cookie tray covered in fabric with Plexiglas on top. We both decided pretty quick we wanted something smaller. Kendall wanted a tray for her bathroom and I wanted matching trays for our bedside tables.

The supplies:
Silver mini-trays from the Dollar store ($1/each)
Fabric from Joann's Fabrics ($8/yard, but I only used maybe 1/4 of that)
Plexiglas cut to size from Lowe's ($3/each)
Pre-cut felt (.33/each)
Spray adhesive (already had)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS PROJECT: Maybe $6 per tray ($12 total)

I found this amazing orange fabric, which I thought would be a great pop of color for our nightstand in our navy and orange master bedroom.

Kendall found this bright ikat-ish fabric (on clearance, mind you!) that is going to work perfect in her bathroom and bedroom. She even bought enough to make a throw pillow down the road.

The steps were really quite easy:
1. Cut the fabric ensuring there's several inches of slack on each side
2. Spray adhesive on the tray and the back of the fabric
3. Carefully press the fabric and glue the fabric to the back (pull the corners tight so there's no bumps) - it doesn't matter how bad it looks on the back because it's going to be covered up!

4. Use spray adhesive on the back of the tray and felt and carefully press the felt (this isn't mandatory, but provides a no-scratch bottom)

Just like Martha would do!

5. Place the plexiglas down (which we had pre-cut for us at Lowe's) - they refuse to round the corners, so we simply took a sanding block I found in the hubby's toolbox and rounded them ourselves.

But why listen to me, when Martha provides this great video tutorial?!

Here's the final product:

My tray on my nightstand (and a sneak peak at our new bedding!):

Kendall's tray:

Love this craft. I think we spent spent more time in the fabric store than we did actually making the tray. And I now have a deep love for spray adhesive.

Cheers!