Dressing the Tables: Part 3

So I have now shown you my inspiration and first trial run for my table numbers, and the actual numbers themselves have finally arrived! It's time now for another round of table number mock ups. When I went back to the art supply store, they did not have any more of the numbers that I practiced on before, I went this time with a wooden frame (same concept).

I set my supplies out on the floor (not pictured here: my newspaper scraps - ripped to be about the size of a quarter, no particular shape).



I started first with blue again to have a comparison. I mixed a bit of the blue paint with the modge podge and used this to decoupage the newspaper to the frame half.



Next, I tried different colors. The paint was mixed with the modge podge again. This method turned out to be much more time intensive because I had to clean my fingers after each piece, and work very slowly so that the whole piece did not come out brown. I let it dry a bit and then covered the whole thing in clear modge podge (meaning without any paint color mixed in).



Here are the two halves, standing side by side on my coffee table (with what I am pretty sure is Wii Basketball on in the background). The flash washes out the effect a little bit, but you can see the comparison here.



And the frame all put together, with slightly better lighting. You can see the method - paint covered newspaper, pretty well here.

(All pictures in this post are personal photos - action shots!)

The result of my second trial? Not loving it! While I think it looks kind of neat, I'm not really achieving the look that I am going for on the tables. I'm a little bit stuck at this point. I had really planned on doing the numbers like this, but now I am considering leaving them just wood - maybe staining them to be a bit darker since our palette is jewel tones, but I'm not sure. Do you have suggestions?

This is not all for the tables, though! I have another plan for accompanying the wooden numbers, and believe me, it's adorable. But you'll just have to stick around to find out more...

Did you have a project that you couldn't seem to get to go the way you wanted? Any advice for my poor little numbers?