Newsprint Silverware Caddy

After we had our garage sale a couple weeks ago, we were left with this baby.

She's just begging for a new look!

I couldn't let her go with the donation load either, but I had no idea what I was going to do with her. (Yes... Doesn't she look like a lady?)

When I settled on a decorating scheme for my kiddo's 2nd Birthday coming up on Wednesday, I knew her purpose.

Here's a hint...

I covered the sides in Mod Podge.

I stuck pieces of newspaper to the sides, not worrying about the ends sticking out because I was going to trip them later, after it dried.

Luckily, it is really forgiving. I glued the wrong side down and ended up with a page of tee-times. All I had to do to remove it was wet the paper and rub it off with a cloth.

This will only work if you don't seal the top with Mod Podge. Another reason for not sealing the top was that I wanted to paint the parts not being covered in paper, and I didn't wants to chance having spots reject the paint. It makes it a lot cleaner and easier to leave the final seal coat for the end.

Once everything was dry, I took some sand paper to the edges to remove the extra paper that wasn't trimmed close. Then I began painting with a small amount of white paint thinned with water.

I had planned to paint over the newspaper but didn't want to risk anything happening to the print, so I decided to seal all the paper parts with a layer of Mod Podge, now that the other spots were painted.

Once dry, I covered the sides covered in newspaper with the thinned white paint. I painted it onand rubbed it in with a towel so it wouldn't cover too much.

The next step was to take some sandpaper to the edges to distress it a bit. A rougher grit paper was needed for the spots covered with the Mod Podge and a finer grit was used for the painted areas.

Since I already had the Mod Podge handy, I used that to seal the bare wood exposed after sanding and I was finished!

This will look amazing with the rest of the party decor.

I will share more as I finish some projects and will definitely share some pics from the party on Wednesday.