sweet homemade santa cookie tray

We’ve been all about getting crafty with wooden trays around here lately, so while Maddy, Owen, and Cora worked on their Thank You Trays, I skipped ahead to the next biggie holiday: Christmas.

Of course, I had sweets on my mind, so thinking about the big man in red and his love of all things cookie, I created a sweet, homemade Santa Cookie Tray.

Very simple, very fun.

And a very perfect spot for Santa’s cookies come Christmas Eve.

With a little paint, tissue paper, and Mod Podge, this holiday craft was done before Santa could even think about giving me a wink of his eye or a twist of his head.

Here’s the skinny. . .

Sweet Santa Cookie Tray: It’s ‘sweet’ because it is cute, easy, and seriously sweet. And it was made with supplies we had on hand: a wooden tray, craft paint, tissue paper, and Mod Podge. That’s it.

We recycled a wooden tray from a Melissa & Doug Sandwich Set, but you could really use any plain wooden tray you’d like.

1. We painted the wooden tray. I used a Plaid acrylic craft paint, the Apple Barrel collection in Antique White, to cover the tray–and I was surprised at how easily the bright red and white checks–and Sandwich Making decor–were covered. I only used one coat.

Though the tray dried rather quickly, I let it sit for a few days.

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2. I found letters for ‘Santa”. I found black letters in our ‘ABC Box’ which is chock full o’ letters of the alphabet–stickers, cards, cut-outs. These letters were big enough to make it very clear exactly whose tray this was–which is why I thought they were perfecto at about 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″.

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3. I painted ‘for. . . ‘ onto the tray, right above ‘Santa’.

I used the Plaid gold metallic acrylic paint from the Folkflirt collection and let it dry.

I tried to use my fanciest letters. Which aren’t all that fancy.

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I love the Mod Podge roller–

4. I covered the sides of the tray with tissue paper and sparkle. I basically used the same tissue paper that I planned to use for the holly leaves, with an added white sparkle and silver sparkle.

Using the Sparkle Mod Podge, I covered one side at a time, simply adding tissue paper here and there, in a totally imperfect way, wherever I wanted some color. The edges went over on the top and sides and bottom, but that was totally fine.

I covered each side and then added a final coat of Sparkle Mod Podge when finished.

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5. I Mod Podged the face of the tray and secured the letters to the tray. I used the Mat Antique Mod Podge because I wanted a flat look, knowing that I was going to bling out the holly leaves and berries and the sides of the tray.

The wide Mod Podge brush totally rocks; with one base coat, I placed the letters from ‘Santa’ on the bottom of the tray. I pressed them down tightly with my fingers and then added a top coat of the same Mod Podge.

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holly berry stencil

6. I created the pattern for the holly leaves and cut the leaves and berries out of tissue paper.

I drew two holly leaves and one berry on cardboard and cut it out. You can download the holly leaf and berry pattern if you’d like and use it for any holiday crafty craft you want.

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7. I Mod Podged the holly leaves to the tray in 3-4 layers. I used different shades and colors and layered them.

I wanted something a little antiquey–and a little modern–so I simply layered 3-4 sheets of tissue paper for each leaf. I wanted bright, but I didn’t want the look of construction paper on wood tray. I used a dark green, light green, white, and light blue for the leaves and hot pink, light pink, and red for the berries.

Between each layer of tissue paper, I Mod Podged only over the leaf area; I did not cover the whole tray until I was finished securing the leaves.

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holly berries

8. Next up? Berries! I did the same thing as with the holly leaves, except I used a cardstock bright red as a base.

I wanted them to really hold up next to the leaves. Then I layered the pinks and reds. As a final top coat, I used the Mod Podge Sparkle for the berries.

SO totally fun.

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9. I finished the bottom of the tray. With two pieces of bright blue card stock (the only thing I had on hand), I used the Sparkle Mod Podge to secure the paper to the bottom of the tray. Because the paper is so thick, I used a heavy coat to secure it, and then I used a heavy coat to seal it. I went through and really made sure the edges were sealed.

It is amazing how nicely the paper pulled together the back of the tray.

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10. Finally, I added a bit of sparkle to the top edges and ‘Santa’.

I didn’t cover the whole thing; rather, I used the Sparkle Mod Podge to create a little pop to ‘Santa’ and on the leaves, following the veins of each leaf and on each berry.

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Mission Complete! And that’s it! Our Sweet, Homemade Santa Cookie Tray is ready for the big guy in red and will hopefully protect his cookies from big, bad Bradyboy!

And it will make a super-cute holiday decoration until Christmas Eve–that I am sure of!

Though I am not a Mod Podge expert by any means, I think I may have a serious crush on the stuff. We’ve used it before, not only on our Thank You Trays but also on our bottle cap ornaments and on the adorable photo tiles we made for family last year; however, I’m only now figuring out the possibilities that the sticky stuff holds.

I have a super cute idea for something special for the kids for the holidays, which I look forward to sharing.

Until then, connect with the good folks at Plaid (makers of Mod Podge) on Facebook, twitter, or pinterest, and please do check out the other cool holiday ideas that some of the world’s top crafty-craft bloggers have created for this campaign in the linky below.

fyi: This post is part of a paid campaign for Blueprint Social. All opinions, as always, are my own, influenced only by my three little Santa-fans and tray decorators and myself.

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