DIY Friday: Special Occasion Plate

I have a confession to make: I did this wrong.  I was SO excited to find these lovely Sharpie paint pens on Amazon for pretty cheap.  The best part was they included a rose gold/copper color.  My favorite!!  My intention was to use these lovely pens to create adorable little gifts such as this (I love this blog, BTW).


I have plans regarding what kind of adorable little gifts I'm going to make, and the first on my list was a special occasion plate for my brand-new niece, Emma.


Have you ever had a special occasion plate?  I think, at one point in my childhood, we had one that said "your special day!" surrounded by confetti and other festive paraphernalia.  I'm sure it made me feel special.  I'm sure it did.  Then when I moved out, Mom bought me my very own special day plate to use whenever I had a special day here in Florida.  Sorry Mom, but I haven't used it.  Probably because it's too pretty.  Or it felt too sad to pull out for myself when I lived alone.  But I'll use it some day, I promise.


So every child should have a special day plate.  I mean, how else will they know when it's their special day?!  Right?!


So I bought a really cute plate at the dollar store (Side note: who is even shopping at dollar stores that have stuff that costs more than a dollar?  Just go to Dollar Tree, where everything is a dollar or under.  Just saying), and I picked up my pens for I think $5 for the three of them.  Cheap gift, right?


Right.  So I free-handed some lettering around the edges, and I think it turned out simple, elegant, and cute.


Then I got a dot of paint where it shouldn't go, and I rubbed it off.  That was the problem-- I RUBBED IT OFF.  You don't want paint to rub off a plate.  It will rub off onto your food, and that's just untasty.  I looked more closely at the paint pens.  "Water based," they screamed back at me.  I wish they had screamed that when I bought them.  *sigh*


In the words of Ree Drummond, a.k.a. the Pioneer Woman, a.k.a. one of my heroines, "Don't be like me, is what I'm saying."


Buy OIL-BASED paint pens, and you'll be good to go.  And the possibilities are essentially endless and very cheap if you have a Dollar Tree nearby.

{please note my gross under-the-nail-bruise on my thumb that I gave myself doing P90X.  Don't ask, and no, I don't do P90X anymore.  Otherwise this plate would be replaced with a picture of my abs.}

Have fun!


xoxo, A