Family Tree Tray

Here is what happens when I get a little alone time. Micah went and played basketball last night and his mom watched the boys, which meant I got a break for the first time in I dont even know!! I got in my pj's, made some rasberry lemonade and turned on the documentary channel and watched global warming and solar energy docs all evening while I made this! It was SO much fun!

About 6 or 7 months ago, I saw an idea in a scrap mag of a page done as a family tree with birds in a tree. I believe it had names on it and was all labeled. Fast forward to last week, I saw the same idea done in a picture frame in a mag.

So I can not take full credit for this idea, however, I did free hand it all and after the initial layout, I did get creative on my own as I went along. I was just goin' with the flow. There was no starting plan.

I had this tray here because I was looking for a big tray for my ottoman (I did eventually find one, but I havent ever put it out yet. Its been under our bed for months. )

The diy tray was calling my name from the depths of my little old utility room and I thought it would be a great altered object. I had already painted it the two browns but it just hadnt done much for me, and it was smaller than I had hoped.

I gathered up some supplies and started altering. First I painted the blue square in the middle. As that was drying, I did all my bird and tree cut outs. Glued those on, and embellished it up. Pretty simple.

The fun part however was epoxy-ing it! I poured resin over it and let it dry over night and now its a nifty little tray that we can display or throw things on. The resin is about a quarter inch thick. I didnt put tons on because I didnt want it to spill out the handles on the sides, but theres definitely enough there to cover it pretty thick. The flowers did pop out a little, but I think it gives it character.
Definitely looks cool in person. It has an awesome sheen to it and its super hard now!

Thanks for the break last night, Gail! It was definitely used well!