How to make a personalized baby plate...

Every time I get a new niece or nephew, I make them something homemade as a baby gift. I've crocheted blankets, crocheted pillows, and embroidered personalized wall art. Judson may be a boy, and he may never care, but I have a fairness policy on this... so he gets something, too. But since my time to craft has become rather restricted, I decided to do something this time around that would only take a few hours to do. I've painted plates before for birthday presents and wedding gifts, but it's been a couple of years since I've dusted off those skills. But today, I made a plate for Judson, and I thought I'd show you how I did it, in case you might be inspired to try the same... It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it. I did this plate today during Seth's extended afternoon nap. It took about 3 hours from start to finish.

First, you need the supplies pictured above. You need some paper towels for blotting your sponges on before you start stenciling, an alphabet stencil set that you cut the letters out of, some round sponge brushes of various sizes, acrylic enamel glass paint, and very important, a box of toothpicks and a glass of water. You also need a hairdryer plugged in nearby.

I started with a plain, white plate that I got from Walmart. Walmart always carries cheap, plain white plates, so it's a good place to go for that sort of thing.

Then you arrange your stencils like you want them, trying to get the spacing correct.

Then you begin stenciling. I put up the following picture to prove that you don't have to be good at stenciling for this to work. When I first tried this, I would get so frustrated because I would pull up the stencil after sponging, and it would look like this. I'd wash it off and try again and again... with the same nasty results. That's when I learned the toothpick trick. A toothpick is a miracle tool in this case. You can dip the tip of one in a little water and then scrape around the edges, getting off the nasty smudges. You can also dip it in a little paint to touch up areas you missed. With a toothpick, my stenciling goes from this...

To this... Pretty amazing, isn't it. After I do each letter on the stencil, I blast it with a hairdryer set on hot and low so that it dries a bit before I lay the edge of the next stencil letter on top of it. That prevents smudges, and I can keep working quickly.

Here you have it! Martha Stewart I am not. I don't have an artistic bone in my body. But I can personalize a plate so that it looks (sort of) like I got it from Pottery Barn. And I didn't have to wait 4 weeks for personalization or pay $50 for it, either. Try it! The supplies don't cost much, and you can find them at any Hobby Lobby or Michaels in the glass/ceramics painting section. I may try painting a piggy bank next. You never know...