Supplies
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- Circular Tray
- Matte Medium
- Black by Stuart Semple
- Blue Lit by Stuart Semple
- Palette Knife
- Paintbrush
- Graphite Transfer Paper
- Pen
- Acrylic Paint – Orange
- Scissors
- White Colored Pencil
- Printed out design
- Black Ink or Black Paint marker
- Silver Paint Marker
I found this great silver tray at Goodwill for $2 and I thought it would make a really cool sign for Halloween! The natural patina on it was perfect, so no polishing or distressing was needed.
Experimenting with new stuff
So recently I obtained some of Stuart Semple’s Black 1.0 (I’d suggest grabbing some of the 2.0, or 3.0 though) as well as Blue Lit! Now, you may be asking yourself what in the world is this girl talking about?! Basically, Semple (an artist) has created inexpensive, high-quality art supplies. He has a variety of products, including many powder pigments that you can mix with some sort of base according to what you need.
What’s special about the Blue Lit is it is an extremely strong glow-in-dark pigment. It charges up with light and/or heat and glows brightly for hours and hours at a time. Plus it glows blue, which is my favorite color!
Whenever I start working with a new medium, I always like to experiment with it first. I read up on Black 1.0 which needs a base to be able to paint with it. Now, Semple has one called Super Base, which I did not have the foresight to order as well.
I had a few different things lying around so I figured I’d try them out. It is best to use something that will dry clear. I tried Satin Mod Podge, Matte Medium, and matte Mod Podge. First, I put down my base and then added a generous amount of pigment while thoroughly stir it with my knife. And continued adding pigment until it reached the desired color.
Let’s Get Down to Business!
I went with Matte Medium as my base. Using a gold Taklon brush I start from the center of the tray dry brushing in a circular motion toward the edge. A couple of coats were used to reach desired coverage.
After letting it dry for a few minutes, I rubbed the edge of the painted area to pull up some of the paint to roughen up the edges.
I also took some of my black mixtures and diluted it down with water and added some of the paint back into it.
Transferring a design
I opened up a new Adobe Illustrator file and came up with a simple design for my sign, I wanted to create an old-world look by using an Art Noveau typeface.
When I printed it out and laid it down on the sign I realized I had made the design a little too tight. I cut the pieces apart so I could reposition them to better fit the space.
Lay down the transfer paper over the tray, shiny side down. I used graphite paper on this to keep the lines more subtle in case of a stray line. I placed my pieces on top of the transfer paper and traced my design with a pen.
Making it pretty
First, I used a white colored pencil to fill in the letters and went over the bottle with a silver paint marker. Then I used Blue Lit, mixing it together as I did for the black, And went over all of the letters in several coats.
I really like the effect created by the Blue Lit, not just the awesome glow-in-the-dark aspect, but in regular light it creates this spooky ectoplasm look.
From there, I painted the liquid in the bottle with orange acrylic paint. I used three coats. From there, I used black ink to add some details to the bottle.
Next, I used the same ink to touch up a few areas and to create more depth and aging to the sign. Also, I used the white colored pencil to hit the most raised portions in the letters to add more depth as well.
Decorating
More Upcycled Projects!
15 Household Items re-purposed For Halloween Decor - The Boondocks Blog
Sunday 3rd of October 2021
[…] a silver or other round tray you’re not using? Make a fun potion sign as Oliva O’Hern did with one she found at the […]
Kippi
Tuesday 8th of October 2019
I love this up-cycle tray from Goodwill it is perfect for Halloween! Happy Halloween, Kippi
Gladys
Monday 7th of October 2019
What a fun upcycling project! I love the tip about transferring the design with transfer paper - I've never tried it but I would love to one of these days. It turned out really great!