Mansion from Mole Hill #2

To remind you of what a mansion from a mole hill even means, go here:

http://mansionsfrommolehills.blogspot.com/2011/10/mondays-mansion-from-mole-hill.html

The first ever mansion from a mole hill happened over a year ago. And today, I bring you the second! One solution per DIY problem per year is enough, right?

I started with these wine plates. They are really nice plates and there is nothing wrong with them. But my BFF Pinterest (BFF to a lot of people, I'm sure) gave me the DIY itch and I just had to do something creative. I wanted to work with what I had and not spend any money. But, of course, the paint colors I already own just weren't right. So, $18 (only 7 bucks of which were for this project) and 3 new paint colors later from Hobby Lobby, I got started.

Before:

I taped off the edges of the plates, thinking this would make a clean line for me after I was done painting. I would be wrong about that (but I didn't know that until the end so my spirits were still high at this point). And, it was a lot of work getting straight tape to line up perfectly on a round plate.

My next strategy was to test the back of a plate to make sure that acrylic paint would even work on an already finished surface. The plan was to use painters tape after I painted all of the plates white to get a perfectly crisp chevron pattern and stripe pattern but the tape just tore the paint to shreds as I gently lifted it up. A little upsetting, but I decided to plunge forward (could be a pun if you'd like because I do feel like this project went down the drown fast). 

Each plate got 4 coats of white acrylic paint to cover the wine picture underneath. I didn't know that acrylic paint dries so quickly that it cracks because the outside layer dries faster than the underside. But I kept going. I printed off a chevron pattern and cut out one strip, tracing it on the plates as a stencil. Very, very difficult to paint straight lines, even if they are traced for you. FYI.

Here is a close up of the finished product:

It's not even close to perfect and it looks crafty, but I'm happy that it still makes me smile more than the wine plates from before. There is not a straight line or perfect circle to be found on these plates, but I feel like they reflect more of what I am going for in life and home. Now I just need to figure out which spot the yellow plate looks better in:

Before again:

 

Which do you prefer? Fun, imperfect prints with color or the classy, sophisticated wine theme? Another FYI: I would never do this project again or recommend this method. It didn't turn out to my standards and was too much of a pain. But it still makes me happy to look at so I'll keep it...until I get tired of it per my usual with everything else I own!