Today, I will be showing you, how to decorate small wooden tray with Christmas themed rice paper. This is very easy project so don’t be afraid to try it.
I will be gluing my rice paper at the bottom of my tray, and as you probably already know from my other videos, we must glue napkins and rice papers on either white or very light background. So I apply one coat of pine stain all around my tray apart from the bottom. You can use any stain you like, even garden stain which you used for painting your fence or furniture, just make sure you have water based product not the oil.
When my paint is dry I apply coat of white primer on the bottom of the tray. You might need couple of coats if coverage of your primer is poor. I keep my primer in glass jar because I usually sneak into my husband’s garage and nick some of his from the big can. This is builders water based primer, which works out much cheaper than the one from art and craft shop. And this isn’t very good advertising from a person who runs one…
Once my paint is dry I can start preparing rice paper by tearing it out of large sheet. I don’t use scissors with rice paper as fluffy torn edges tend to blend much better and you will need less coats of varnish later on.
When my pictures are ready I start gluing using decoupage glue and synthetic brush. First I apply generous amount of glue on my tray, then I position my paper in the middle, and I apply another coat of glue starting in the centre smoothing paper towards edges.
When everything is dry I mix several paints to get beige shade to match my paper. I take very little paint on my tapping sponge, and I apply it on my silicone stamp, then press it against the tray’s bottom to create missing text.
To blend everything further I splash quite a lot of dots all over the pictures using fan brush. I also cover smudged words with white paint because they don’t look very nice.
You might ask why I used stain instead of brown paint and my answer is simple. I love structure of the wood, and I want it to be visible. In this case stain is perfect and we can still see structure of the wood through it. We can also expose it further by using “dry brush” technique. So, I take small amount of white paint on my stiff bristle brush, wiping excess on kitchen towel, and I gently apply it on top of the stain following the wood grain. It is better to try it with tiny amount of paint at first as you can always add more.
At the very end I add some moulds on corners of my tray to add more details. 
When I’m happy with the finish I can start varnishing. I apply several layers of gloss water based varnish around my tray. Then I use fine sand paper to smooth surface, then I apply another several layers of varnish. I repeat the sanding/varnishing process only in places with rice paper until surface is perfectly smooth. This should eventually level all the imperfections.
My tray is finished and I strongly invite you to visit my online shop for more supplies. Thank you so much for watching and for your lovely comments.