Happy Everything!

Recently, my mom and I were shopping at Genevieve Bond, a local gift shop. They had a huge display of the "Happy Everything" line from Coton Colors. You can see the whole line of gifts here:

Coton Colors- Happy Everything

I liked the idea of a display piece that you can switch out the attachments for different holidays and events (the attachments and platter have velcro). I did not like the idea of paying so much money for a plate! I think G.B. was selling it for around $115.00 for the large platter. The website is the same. Some of us who are married to very frugal men are thinking to ourselves, "There's no way my husband will pay $115.00 for a plate!" So, I set out to duplicate it for myself, for my own decorative purposes.

I checked Hobby Lobby for plates, and they actually did not have any plain ceramic platters. So I went to Home Goods. They happened to have an already tan colored ceramic platter on clearance for $10! The one I found was oval instead of round, which I think I actually like better.

Here is the original I saw in the store:

Here is the one I found at Home Goods after I started painting polka dots:

As you've probably figured out, I am not perfect. I went to Michael's craft store to ask for help in what kind of paint to get. They were NOT helpful. Due to a recent switch of phone services where I have to pay lots of money to get on the internet when I'm not connected to WiFi, I did not get online to check to see what kind of paint to get. I bought acrylic paint. It's fine, but it's not going to give you $115 results. It gives you good enough results for something cute to display. You should probably research what kind of paint could give you shiny, eat off the platter results. (I think I should have used acrylic enamel? I couldn't find this kind) I just wanted something fast and cute that we will never use for eating, so I used acrylic. The lady at Michael's was actually helpful in guiding me to a spongey stamp shaped like a polka dot. This worked great for me because I am very bad at drawing lots of circles that are all the same size. Here's what it looked like after all of the polka dots:

Now for the writing... There are certainly more ways you could do this than how I chose to do so. If you have a Cricut machine, you could cut out vinyl letters. I actually do have a Cricut which I used later on in the project. But I didn't have a font that matched exactly, so I decided to free hand it while looking at a picture of the platter I found online. I suggest using a non-permanent pen to lightly plot out where your letters will go. Then, if you mess up, you can wipe it off the plate. I messed up a couple of times, and I just wiped it off with a wet paper towel.

Ok, so maybe the Michael's lady was kind of helpful, she helped me find an OIL-BASED Sharpie brand PAINT PEN marker. It shook up like a paint pen, looked like a paint pen, was expensive like a paint pen, but it was Sharpie brand. Now this was probably the kind of product I should have found for the polka dots. It goes on glossy, and stays that way. It looks very nice. Just follow the instructions on the package for how to prime it. You could also try to just use your own handwriting if you like your hand writing better than copying the Happy Everything people. I have pretty basic handwriting, so I copied their style, not perfectly, but it's pretty close:

Back to the paint thing...depending on what kind of paint you use will determine what you do in this next step. I baked my plate. At this point, I was regretting my whole "fly by the seat of my pants" approach to this project. The sharpie was supposed to be cooked at 350 degrees and the acrylic paint was supposed to be at 325. I went with 325 for 30 minutes in the oven. The most important thing about this is to put the plate in a cool oven and don't preheat it. This lets the plate gradually come up in temperature with the oven so it hopefully won't shatter. This step is supposed to set everything in place. I have no idea if it worked or not. The polka dots did look smooth after it came out of the oven, but still not shiny like I wanted. Like I said, we won't use our plate for eating, so it doesn't really matter.

Now, you just find a plate stand, some velcro, and some attachments, and you're set!

I made my own attachment with a piece of ceramic I found at Hobby Lobby. I cut out vinyl on the cricut that said "Mom's Special Day" and threaded pink ribbon through it. 

You can really add velcro to almost any kind of flat decoration. Hobby Lobby has wooden ones for pretty cheap. You could also use large magnets or flat ornaments. The sky is the limit! You could also take this as an opportunity to put your foot down and say, "I already saved money on the plate, so I'm just going to buy the original attachments!" And then you can pay about $16 for mini attachments or $24 for the large ones. 

I really just like the idea of celebrating life, whether you have a plate or not!