Mini Plaque Tutorial

These plaques are made from upcycled chipboard drink coasters which I had bought on clearance at Michael’s over a year ago for less than 20 cents per pack of 6. I had been trying to come up with a craft for them, and I think they turned out pretty well even thought I was really rushed to get 30 made on time.  These were one of the favors I made for the annual Phantom of the Opera themed charity dinner a group of friends throw benefiting City of Hope.

Completed plaque

 Supplies:
Chipboard coasters or chipboard cut to 4×4″ square
Acrylic paint
Crop-A-Dile or other heavy duty hole punch
Ribbon – 12″ length used here
Embellishments or other artwork

Step 1:
I peeled the stickers off of the coasters to expose the chipboard.  They were on both sides and came off quite easily.

Sticker removed from the coaster

Step 2:
I painted two coats of gold acrylic paint on one side and 1 coat on the backside of the plaques.  Once the paint was dry I punched two holes at the top of the plaques using the 1/8″ punch of the Crop-A-Dile.

Step 3:
I made phantom masks from air-dry clay which I will post the instructions for later this week.  I made a mistake and this is the order I should have gone in.  I printed the sheet music for a few of the songs from The Phantom of the Opera at approximately 2 1/4″ tall x 2″ wide.  I rubbed red stamp pad along the edges to give the plaque more color. Attach these to the plaque with Modge Podge or watered down white glue. Allow to dry.

Step 4:
I added 1 coat of matte Modge Podge over the entire plaque, but probably should have used 2 coats.  I had time constraints and 30 plaques, so this wasn’t done, but in the future, I will.


Step 5:
I used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive glue to attach the clay masks to the plaque.  The chandeliers are plastic and are self-adhesive.

Embellishments added

Step 6:
I used Stickles glitter glue in Xmas Red around the edges of the plaques.  I sped up the dry time with a hair dryer since I was doing this the morning of the dinner.

Step 7:
I cut 12″ lengths of ribbon in red and black from my ribbon stash to hang the plaques from.  I triple knotted the ribbon on the backside of the plaque for hanging. You could forgo punching the holes and attach a magnet to the back.

I wrapped these in waxed tissue paper purchased at Michael’s about 2 years ago.  I was able to use the folds in the tissue paper as my guidelines to cut the paper for wrapping the plaques in.  I wrapped the plaques because the Modge Podge really needs at least 24 hours to cure and I didn’t want the other objects scratching the plaque while in the favor/gift bags.

I left the top-side open

TTFN,
V