Newsprint Drink Tray

Newsprint Drink Tray for Ottoman

Hello again. I’ve missed you. And I’ve missed crafting. And my lack of crafting is exactly why I haven’t been here lately.

Ah, busy life. Why must we always stay so busy?

Well here’s a quick project that I started over a year and a half ago. When I first started this blog, actually- I had all kinds of Christmas gift projects in my head, and then being preggo and just, yes, busy… they didn’t all get done. This one was lowest priority, so it didn’t get done before Christmas.

And then I messed up a little, and didn’t know what to do with it, and then it still didn’t get done.

But I finally got inspiration for it, and now I’m just swooning over it.

Drink tray posing with my treasures from Hope Handmade and Cache Chic on Etsy

Let’s start with the problem so you can see what a beautiful solution this is.

No coffee table.

So where are our drinks supposed to go? We have an ottoman, but let’s face it, cushy ottoman can equal spilled drinks. And I’m tired of grabbing a DVD case to put my drink on.

Enter drink tray project.

I started at Goodwill, looking for a frame or something that would suffice as a good size for a tray. Not too huge, and the right kind of frame.

I found this framed painting with –ahem– not my style of painting. I painted over it.

(My husband keeps teasing me that “someone worked very hard on that, and you just painted over it!” but I blamed Pinterest, but really, if it was all that important to them, it wouldn’t have been at Goodwill in the first place.)

So here’s where I became unhappy with it. I was trying to be fast and frugal and all that, and used some of the paint from the walls upstairs. Lovely sunflower gold. Yellow. Whatever.

Hmph. Didn’t give it quite the look I wanted. Even if I planned to mod-podge some photos on it, I didn’t really like the yellow on this particular project.

So, inspirationless, it sat.

And sat.

And sat.

Until I was tossing out a newspaper, and had an idea.

I love newsprint. I love words. I love black and white.

And this love translates to me rescuing that newspaper from the trash and tearing it up.

This project is a good kind of messy.

Here’s how to do it:

You will need:

Old picture frame or piece of wood
Newspaper or magazine pages
Mod Podge
Foam brushes
Drawer handles

First, you’ll want to cut a straight edge on one side of the piece, and then tear the other side just haphazardly, so it doesn’t look too planned.

One straight edge lines up with edge of project. The other will be covered up.

Next, mod-podge on the back of the piece (VERY important!! I’ll explain why in a minute) and then stick the straight edge along the edge of your frame, and mod-podge over top of it.

Continue with more pieces, laying them this way and that, and fill up your area. I recommend starting with the edges and moving in, but you can do it however.

BIG TIP: I have learned from experience that you need to smear the back of your piece of paper with mod-podge before you stick it down!
The reason why is because the paper is going to soak up the moisture from the glue and pucker after you’ve laid it down on your beautiful craft project. And then there’s nothing you can do about it. Get it nice and wet with the mod-podge on the backside, and then lay it down, and mod-podge over the top. You may still see a few bubbles or puckers, but they should be small enough you can smoothe them down with your fingers.

TIP: You may even want to get all your pieces ready first, and then mod-podge them down, simply because if you’re holding it over the wet gluey pieces to ‘see if it will fit’, it might accidentally stick there, and then tear before you’re ready. This happened to me, but it wasn’t that big of a deal- I just covered up the tear.

Once the whole area is nice and covered, put a layer of mod-podge over it all. After it’s set and dry, put another layer of mod-podge, and let dry. It should be good and set before you put any drinks on it- but the mod-podge should water-proof it well enough to protect your newsprint, photos, or whatever you put on it.

You can attach little cute handles to it, or just leave it as is.

You can also mod-podge some photos on it if you want. I may still do that, but haven’t decided if I’m done swooning at it the way it is right now.

Ta Da!