Easy plate facelift - Do It Yourself - Plate Monograms

Need a good and EASY gift idea, or have some pretty plates laying around the house?  This project was a lot of fun.

Plate Monograms!

First off, go to your favorite discount store or thrift store and get yourself some plates that inspire you.  I bought this set from a thrift store at .25 cents for the small plates and .50 cents for the large plate. 

Next choose a fun font off your computer and print your (or someone elses) last initial. If you have the Cricut or Silhouette I am sure you could do some fancy sticker sheet for this! (wish I had one). I used the font Blackadder ITC.

Next I used an exacto knife and cut out the "H".  I sprayed 3D mounting spray (sticky stuff) to the backside of the paper.  I cut it out and stuck it on the plate.  (really you don't need to cut it out - just press it on the plate so that it lays flat where you would spray paint.)

Now you can either spray paint this or use another paint that you could just dab on like you would with a stencil.  The reason I say that is because using the spray paint didn't work as well as I had hoped.  It leaked through the edges of the paper and left a very fuzzy H.  Fortunately it is easy to clean up the lines.  Just dip a Q-tip in mineral spirits (available in any home improvement store) and clean up the edges.  You will need to do it right away because if the paint cures it is a lot harder to get off.

But with a little "elbow grease" it should turn out like this! 

I glued the smaller plate with the monogram onto the larger plate.  (use a heavy duty glue) Then I attached these great inventions called Dischangers

You just wet the back of them till they are sticky and attach to the plate.  Let it dry for 24 hours and you have a super easy hook!   If you ever needed to remove them you just soak them in water.  The size you see above cost $2.25.  I had the larger plate holder so all I needed was to buy 2 small ones.

UPDATE: I realized there is a way to make your own FREE PLATE HOLDER!!!  Just click over to that post - I was so excited when I figured it out.

The entire project cost me $5.50!!! Wouldn't it make a great personalized gift!!! 

Other ideas I had would be to spray chock paint on the center circle and write anything you would like on it.  How about a "Happy Birthday" message on your child's birthday?  Or a pumpkin or Christmas tree on it for the holidays.  Of course you could just use chock to write your initial!  There are many ideas that would make a great gift.  For the very ambitious who feel comfortable with power tools (that would not be me - see this post) they could easily make a clock out of the plate too.

Enjoy - I hope your "Creative Juices" have been stirred!