This project took no more than 20 minutes, and that was with many interruptions from my 2 year old and making dinner.
For the rest of the world, this would have been a quick less than 10 minute, but huge pay off project. I found this plate at my local dollar store, so it obviously only cost me $1.
I found this image on www.daddydrama.com, a site to explore for another day.
I printed it out using letter size paper and started cutting so that I would be left with something of a template. If you like this image also, right click and choose save image as…then choose a folder that is convenient and save it. Open the image from your chosen location and print.
I taped it to my plate and carefully held it in place while I lightly painted using a stippling technique (an upright pouncing of your paint brush so that you don't accidentally move your template aside and paint underneath). I chose an olive green acrylic craft store paint by DecoArt (less than $1 on sale!).
Very carefully remove the paper, shortly after you finish with the paint so that you don't have bleeding. Once your paper is removed you can see if there are any areas you might want to touch up.
Since the majority of this image is twig and branch, it doesn't require perfection and is supposed to have a graphic quality. Don't worry if you aren't a skilled painter, this project can be done by anyone.
Note: if you purchase a ceramic plate to try this project with, you might want to consider choosing a paint that states it is for use on ceramic like DecoArt Gloss Enamels.
To touch up, I continued to add layers of paint as each dried, and used the stippling technique, even though I had removed the paper. This technique ensures you are adding paint rather than removing it as regular brush strokes can.
