Mosaic Tray

For Christmas this year my little sister bought me a complete mosaic making kit.  She knows I love to craft and that I hadn't tried mosaic before so she thought it would be prefect.  Well, it was!  The set came with small glass tiles, 'nippers' (which is the tool you use to crack the tiles into different shapes), glue, grout and a few various other things for the project. I recently got around to making a mosaic and I wanted to post about it.  When she gave me the set she gave me a terracotta pot to create a mosaic on but after browsing Pinterest- Best site EVER for ideas on cooking/crafting/wasting time... I decided I wanted to do a mosaic serving tray. I bought the tray at Old Time Pottery Barn and then I went to Michael's, bought some iridescent tiles to add and then I sat down to create! Here is the how-to and how it turned out.  I LOVE IT! <-I feel like I always say that haha but it's true!

SUPPLIES:

• A Tray
• Tiles
• A Nipper (and a plastic Ziploc bag)
• Glue (and a Popsicle stick) 
• A Marker
• Grout 
• A Sponge
• A Trowel of some sort

DIRECTIONS:

1) Take your tray and your maker and outline a pattern you'd like to mosaic.  I chose something simple that I thought would look nice, it is a few swirls of solid colors with the rest of the background filled in with iridescent blue tiles. 

2) Take your nipper (Click here to learn about Nippers!) and cut the tiles into the shapes you'd like to use.  You can use the squares 'as is' but I liked the look of the cut glass so even though it was more time consuming I chose to cut each tile.  I would recommend cutting them inside of a bag.  I would place the tile in the grip of the nipper and then stick the entire front end and my hand into a large Ziploc bag.  When the tiles shatter they tend to fly everywhere, I had tiny glass slivers all over my couch and floor until Brian suggested this method. MUCH smarter/less messy!

3)Next, glue each piece of tile onto the tray.  You are going to want to make sure the pieces are close together, almost like a puzzle. Here is what it should look similar to so far...

4) After the glue dries you then need to grout the entire tray.  The grout is powdered cement that you mix with water. Start with a teaspoon of water at a time, you want the grout to be of a similar consistency to toothpaste, not too much runnier.  You are going to spread the grout over the tiles evenly and make sure it gets between the cracks of the tiles or those spaces in between.  Here is what it will look like grouted...

5) Let the grout dry for about fifteen minutes, then take a damp sponge (not wet!) and clean off the top layer of grout.  The tiles will become clear an shine/sparkle.  I did it a few times because I wanted the tiles to be as least hazy as possible.  Once you've cleaned it off to your liking let the grout dry completely and you're done!

Here is how mine turned out!

What color scheme did/would you choose? Did you make a tray also or are you going to make something else? 

I really like the way the iridescent colors turned out, it's looks great in natural light.  Maybe I'll try to get another photo in natural light soon!