Painted Glass Plates

For once I am way ahead of the game. Each fall, my church has a "Celebration Tea" and ladies volunteer to create and host themed tables. I have participated as a hostess six times; I wrote about the most recent tea here.

I knew I wanted to do a cupcake table the next time and it is just starting to form in my mind. I bought some

acrylic glass paints last summer and Cupcake Nana used them to personalize and decorate tea cups as favors for Miss M's 6th birthday party. Well, I picked up clear glass dessert plates at Old Time Pottery at the sale price of $0.50 each!!

After cleaning them with rubbing alcohol, I drew a cupcake design on the front side of the plate using a dry erase marker - not my idea, but a tip from a fellow blogger. Thanks Nikki!! This works especially great if you wanted to put words on your plate. The only trick is to remember that you must paint the details first and let them dry, then paint over with your next color. I didn't wait long enough on a few of my sprinkles and there was a little bleed through. but hey..they are all truly handpainted!

I used the old tip of using the end of my paintbrush for the sprinkles and then the unused eraser of a pencil for the dots around the edges. After the paint dries for 48 hours, it says it is handwashable. Baking them at 325 for 30 minutes is all it took to make the plates dishwasher safe - not that I intend to put them there though! Here is a view from the back...

I have clear dinner plates from a previous table I hosted...not sure if I will paint those or not! I might just do the polka dots on them...not sure yet. I plan to use the clear punch cups I thrifted for last year's table. Now, I just need to come up with my favors and napkins...I have 7 months left to come up with those ideas!

* I used Americana Gloss Enamels that I found at Hobby Lobby for $2.99. You get 8 colors in a package and there was more than enough for both of my projects plus several more. Note they are NOT food safe which is why I painted the back side!