Halloween Owl Decoration

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Okay so I found this super ugly tray at Goodwill...

Come on people, really?  Silver, blue & white, with gold handles?  Really?!  NO!

But it was perfect for what I wanted.  Really it was just the handles I love!  So I got to work.

I had some flat black spray paint laying around so that's what I used after priming it.

Then once it was painted, nothing fancy...just flat black, but I figured I could spray a clear coat over top or something to give it a sheen.  I also used a piece of 12 x 12 card stock that I had laying around that has a cursive message all over it as the background, the owl wasn't big enough to cover where the blue and white circle inlay was.  I printed on some card stock a picture of an owl from google and cut it out.  I debated back and forth between and owl, skull, bat, or spider.  I used my judgement and went with the owl.  I would have done the skull but I'll have 4 skulls already on the mantle...I didn't want over kill of skulls!  ;D

So after the tray was painted I took a little sandpaper and roughed up the edges and the whole surface of the handles so the brassy color came back through.  I then sprayed the adhesive to the back of the owl and centered him on the card stock circle for the inlay. 

Note:  I tried to spray adhesive as well to the back of the card stock circle to lay on the tray thinking it would stick, NOPE it didn't so I used a glue gun to glue it to the tray!  Oh well.

After gluing that on I tried spraying with the satin finish clear spray I bought today. 

Note:  The clear satin finish didn't have enough of a sheen or add any umph to this piece!  Maybe I should have gone with the glossy one instead!  Lesson learned!

So needless to say I broke out what varnish I had laying around which is also a satin brush on.  I brushed a layer of that on and I'm still not sold.  I think I need to get a gloss tomorrow to seal the deal!  ;D  Modge Podge may work too, but I want something I can spray I think.  Either way it looks cool and will look WAY better when I finish another coat of gloss.  I love how the brass shows through on the handles.  It will be awesome on the mantle with all my glittered skulls when they are done and miscellaneous other Halloween decor I'm scrounging up. 

For $1 for the tray and $1 for the black spray paint I already had I think it will be a great Halloween decoration!