How To Transform An Ugly & Boring Printer's Tray

I love my parents. They are so good to me and my sister and last month was their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Besides buying them something that they would cherish, I also knew that I wanted to make them something that was special and represented their 50 years together.

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A Thrift Store Find Becomes the Focus

For about a week, I racked my brain to come up with something unique. All of a sudden, it hit me. I had bought this old worn out printer’s tray at Goodwill a while ago, with no real plan for it.

I pulled it off my shelf of thrift store “treasures” and decided that I would create a memory box for them. I paid $1.91 for the printer's tray and already had most of the supplies I needed in my craft room to complete this printer's tray transformation... and that's exactly what I did!!

Printer's Tray Before

Printer's Tray Price

Step One: Clean and Prep the Tray

This tray was so dirty so the first thing I did was clean the tray really well. I used a damp cloth with soap and water and a toothbrush to get into the groves and corners. After cleaning it, I decided that it had too many small compartments. I knew that I wanted some bigger ones in order to put in background pictures.

I cut out some of the smaller sections with a utility knife (it wasn't hard to do this, the wood was pretty soft) and used Gorilla Glue to glue the wood where it was loose. To ensure that the wood dividers stayed where I needed them to, I taped the glued areas and let them dry overnight. When I removed the tape, those wooden inserts were not going anywhere!

You can (sort of) see in the picture below that I ended up with 5 bigger sections which ended up working perfectly.

Once the glue was dry, I started to put background pictures and paper in the sections. Honestly, I just didn’t like the brown wood with the items I chose. It needed to be painted a bright color.

Paint the Tray (if You Choose)

I used white chalk paint that took 3 coats to get it to the point where I was happy with it. Chalk paint dries pretty quickly, so I was able to start decorating the next day. I didn’t want to distress the wood, so I just sealed it with some white wax and began to decorate it with special embellishments. This is definitely the FUN part!!

Here is the tray ready for beautiful decorations! (This is a better picture to see the bigger sections):

I didn't have a specific plan for embellishing the tray except that I knew I wanted to put my parents' wedding picture, old pictures and pictures of my boys as backgrounds. That's where I started. As the project progressed, ideas would come to me and that is what I built on.

A Vision Takes Shape

Add the Backgrounds

I wanted to make sure that each compartment background held a special place in my parents' hearts. So I added these backgrounds:

• Wedding Photo of my parents

• Family picture from the 70’s

• Current Family Pictures

• Picture of me and my sister as kids

• Pictures of my parents' first house and their current house

• Pictures of their grandchildren and grand dogs

• Scriptures

• 50 Years poem

• Paper and Burlap fabric

  
  

Once I had the backgrounds chosen, I glued them into place using ModPodge. This was the easiest and least messy way to get the backgrounds glued into place.

Add Things that Have Meaning

As the backgrounds were drying, I wanted to find things that represented my parents' hobbies and interests. I made a list and looked for miniature items that I could purchase online. I did have some of these things already, but as I looked at the Hobby Lobby Website, I found items that I definitely wanted.

Items with special meaning:

• Sewing machine and fabric rolls (Mom)

• Decorated spools (Mom)

• Cookies & baking items (Mom)

• Tools (Dad)

• Books (Dad)

• Stickers of the states they were born in

• Basket of Flowers

• Family Initial

• Quotes

Add Beautiful Embellishments

To add some beauty and personality to the piece, I add the following embellishments:

• Stickers

• Lace

• Ribbon

• Wooden Cutouts

• Pearls

• Paper flowers

• Metal Corners

• Metal Quote

• Doilies

• Bunting with “Mr. & Mrs.”

• Metal signs “Grandfather” & “Grandmother”

• Metal key & lock

Most of these items I actually had on hand in my craft stash. I only purchased a few stickers and the miniature items, which were all from Hobby Lobby.

The Printer's Tray Transformation

The entire project cost me less than $20.00. I invested more in the time it took for me to create the piece - but it was so fun and rewarding. I am so happy how it turned out... and so are my parents!

Without further ado... Here is the finished product:

Now, this once ugly and boring printer’s tray is a beautiful representation of my parents' fifty years together. It took a while to finish, but it was so worth it.

My parents really love this gift. My mom especially loves how beautiful it is. Fifty years is a long time and the memories held within those 50 years are priceless.

When you are out shopping and see an old ugly printer’s tray, don’t pass it up. Create a beautiful box that preserves your memories. I promise, you will love the results!

Blessings,

Amy