DIY Serving Tray Kitchen Organizer – A Pinch of This and a Dash of That!

It’s a New Year and time to take control of the clutter! In the Cochran house, that means the kitchen clutter.  I spend a lot of time running around my kitchen to gather the same supplies and ingredients every meal. Why not out them all in one central, easy to reach location?  When I saw the Walnut Hollow Serving Tray, I knew it would be the perfect organizer to corral all of my spices, olive oil, and what-nots into one hand place in the kitchen.  What better way to achieve my organization goal than to create a functional piece that doubles as Kitchen Décor?!

This tray organizer projects goes together quickly. Customize it to match your kitchen decor with paint  and a quote that fits you! Gather these supplies to create this custom DIY Serving Tray Kitchen Organizer:

–Walnut Hollow Serving Tray

-Acrylic Paint

-Paint and sponge brushes

–Creative Versa-Tool®

–HotStamps Number & Symbol Set

-Carbon Paper

-Tape

-Pencil

-Printed Sentiment

The Walnut Hollow Serving Tray is the perfect piece to keep all your go to kitchen items in one place.

HOW TO:

I started by painting the entire surface of the Walnut Hollow Serving Tray.  I let the tray dry and applied a second coat of acrylic paint.  I allow the paint to dry overnight and touched up any edges the next morning.

Starting out your project with a couple coats of acrylic paint helps customize the Serving Tray to your kitchen decor.

Now for the most exciting part of this project…wood burning with the Creative Versa-Tool!  Screw the “flow point” into the Creative Versa-Tool tip making sure not to tighten it down too much.  The Creative Versa-Tool has Versa Temp Temperature Control dial, which I set to between orange and red, which is a good heat setting for wood burning.  Create a sentiment on a computer and print it out, sized to fit the outer wall of one side of the serving tray.  Add carbon paper underneath the printed out sentiment, taping both the sentiment and carbon paper in place as they can move while transferring the image onto the wood surface.  Firmly trace around each printed letter in the sentiment with a pencil.  The carbon paper will transfer a very light outline onto the wood that you can then trace with the Creative Versa-Tool to wood burn the words.

Carbon copy paper is handy in wood burning as it only leaves a light outline of the design on the surface of the wood.  It disappears when you go over it with the Creative Versa-Tool.

Allow the Creative Versa-Tool to heat for at least 10 minutes.  It is HOT, so be careful.  Remove the sentiment print out and carbon paper from the tray.  Gently press the tip of the Creative Versa-Tool to the wood (only about as hard as you would press a pencil to paper) and begin lightly tracing the outline of the first letter in the sentiment.  Do several passes over the same letter to get a darker wood burn.  After each pass, allow the tip reheat for about 30-60 seconds.  It took approximately 30 minutes to finish wood burning the sentiment across the front of this Serving Tray.

When “Hot Stamping”, be sure to keep your hand as vertical as possible to get a nice impression.

My final addition to this project is adding the “&” sign using the HotStamps Number and Symbol Set.   After allowing the Creative Versa-Tool cool completely, I unscrewed the flow point with my pliers.  I then screwed the “&” sign into the tool tip.  I reheated the tool and then burned the character into the appropriate place in my sentiment. You can add letters and words to your projects using the HotStamps Number and Symbol Set or the HotStamps Alphabet Set. Or use the Creative Vera-Tool with the flow point like I did to create lettering in any font!

Below you will find my full “Tell All Video” on how you can create your own Serving Tray Kitchen Organizer with Walnut Hollow’s wood trays, Creative Versa-Tool, and the HotStamps Number and Symbol set.

 

My organization resolution for 2016 is to have a clean and orderly kitchen!  Leave me a comment and let me know all about your organization resolution!  Also, visit walnuthollow.com for supplies for this project and more to organize your home in 2016.

Hi, I’m Jenn Cochran from Jax Bean Stalks.  I am a handmade greeting card designer.  I like to dabble in home decor and mixed media.  My 1st love is cooking so most weekends you will find me making elaborate meals for my family.  I spend all of my free time enjoying the Colorado outdoors with my son, Bean.  For more crafty ideas and How To Videos, visit me at Jax Bean Stalks.