Friday Fun, a Different One! #14 DIY Day!

Good morning to all of you on this fine sunny Friday! Also, a Happy Good Friday to everyone! You may not celebrate Good Friday where you live, but it is a holiday here in Canada, being connected with Easter which is on Sunday. Anyway, I know yesterday I mentioned our DIY project would be later on Thursday, but I decided to make Friday our DIY day instead, since Friday is called Friday Fun. It just kind of makes sense. And for now our stories from the past will be on Saturday.

Today we are taking an old serving tray, this one being from the 1930s, which had a wood frame and glass top, and we will turn it into a picture frame for displaying some antique birthday postcards, dating from 1903 to 1911. Once we are finished, it is not intended to be used as a serving tray. I had picked up the tray at a garage sale for 25 cents.

I had been using it to display Hires Root Beer ads from the early 1940s, (shown in the above photo), but it was time for a change.

Someone had stripped the original finish off the frame so all I needed to do wash put 2 coats of urethane on it, which really made it look nice (shown above).

So I removed the cardboard back and removed them (shown above). I used pliers to pull out the old nails holding the cardboard backing in place.

Then I cleaned the tray nicely, especially the glass which was worse than it looked, and on both sides. I use a mixture of vinegar and water for all such cleaning purposes (as shown in above photo).

Then I cut a new piece of white poster board to put on the cardboard for a new backing for my birthday postcards (shown above).

Then I loosely arranged the postcards in different ways onto the backing until I found the placement I wanted (shown above).

But it did not look quite right to me, the back was too white and just did not seem to match the antique postcards. I was using this old tray for them because I wanted an “old” look to the finished project. But that white back just did not blend in properly. So, I had some old pieces of brown packing paper and I took one and crumpled it up nicely, then marked it and cut it to fit.

Then I rearranged the birthday postcards on this and it looked exactly like what I was hoping for, that “old” look (shown above).

Unfortunately it does not really show up too nicely in the photo, it looks much better than this. I used some photo corners to attach the postcards to this paper. I was actually surprised that these were still being sold. They do work great for old photographs and old greeting cards like this since they do not hurt them in any way.

For attaching the cardboard backing, I used small finishing nails and squeezed them into position with pliers (shown above). I protected the frame on the outside with sturdy boxboard (like from a cereal box), so the pliers would not make any marks on the frame. I find this quicker and easier than trying to use a small hammer and holding those small nails in place.

The final result was just what I wanted and I think it came out very well (shown above). This is a very simple project. It is not necessary to use old greeting cards, photos or other pictures can be used, or old ads like I had originally done. Just use whatever you have on hand.

This is just meant as a picture frame to hang up, not to use as a tray. If you want to use it as a tray, then it would be necessary to cut a piece of wood to use on the back to give it extra strength. The tray size is 15 by 19 inches (37.5 by 47.5cm).

I have a couple other old serving trays that I also use for picture frames. Old serving trays are perfect for picture frames, especially if you have something old to display. Thank you for reading today, I hope you enjoyed our little project. We will have another project for next Friday. Have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.