If you’re looking for a fun crafts project to do over the weekend, putting up a decorative plate wall can be an excellent idea. Rather than get beautiful, ready-decorated plates, though, you should consider decorating your plates yourself. Here are a few DIY decorative plates ideas.
1. Put a number on it
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Putting numbers on ceramic plates is so easy, you’ll be finished with each plate in under 10 minutes. The reason it’s easy is that you don’t need to paint the numbers on — you can simply transfer common number decals that you get at any craft store. Ceramic plates with official-looking numbers on them can be great for a number of purposes – putting up the year your house was built, the year a child was born and so on.
2. Use a spray can
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You can get surprisingly elegant results using masking tape on a plate and spray painting an exposed area. You only need to be careful to make sure that the masking tape maintains perfect contact at all points. If it doesn’t, you could see paint seep in into the wrong places.
3. Use contact paper
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Contact paper — paper with strong sticky backing — was originally invented for use as shelf liner. After manufacturers saw DIYers enthusiastically take to it for craft projects, though, they began turning out all kinds of variants for craft purposes: you can buy vinyl, glass, and stainless steel contact paper. To decorate a plate with this material, you only need to cut off a piece, trace a shape that you want — the silhouette of a person, animal or plant — and use an X-Acto knife to cut out the shape. Then, you can carefully adhere it to the center of your plate.
4. Try decoupaging
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Decoupaging is the art of decorating a surface with the use of layers of paper and glue. You can try virtually any kind of design in this way — florals, pastoral scenes, portraits and so on. Once you have a decoupage ready on a plate, you can seal it in with a coat of clear acrylic finish.
5. Paisley plates for your wall
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You can achieve a beautiful effect by decorating an entire wall with paisley-patterned plates. The plates themselves can be the inexpensive dollar store variety. It’s a good idea to mount the plates on your wall first. This way, you’ll know where the paisley patterns would look best. Once you pick up paisley stencils at a craft store, getting the patterns on the plates is as simple as using craft paint and a sharp, pointed implement such as pouncer.
6. There is another way to get lettering on a plate
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You don’t necessarily need to use a stencil, paint or a decal to get lettering or numbering on a ceramic plate. You can use chalk, too. Get a can of chalkboard paint, cover the center of the plate in black and write out the words that you want in chalk.
7. Decorate with printouts
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Decoupage doesn’t have to be about decorating with layers of paper – you can use just one layer if you want. You should consider printing out a beautiful pattern or image off the Internet, applying the print to a plate, gluing it on and then sealing it in with clear acrylic spray.
8. Stenciled vintage plates
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If you have faded old ceramic plates that you’ve had at the back of a shelf forever, you should consider using them for decorative purposes. If they have pretty flowers on them, they will look great on a wall. A stenciled message on the plates can make them even more interesting. You should try a positive message such as JOY.
9. The doodle plate
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If you’re skilled in the art department, you should consider making fun Sharpie doodles on your plates before mounting them for display. They’ll add a quirky touch to your home, wherever you mount your plates.
10. Paint a clock
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Stock markets, businesses and even iPhones have world time displays — a number of clocks for every time zone around the world. You could have a fun effect printing out these world clocks at any given moment and gluing the prints to the center of several plates.
