Holiday dishes spread cheer

Hands-on time: Less than 30 minutes per plate.
Total time: 24 hours for the paint to set and another 35 minutes to bake.
Skill: Easy.
Cost estimate: Less than $25 for the materials to paint three different sizes of plates for an eight-place setting.

Materials & Tools

• Clear or tinted glass dishes like charger plates, dinner plates, salad or dessert plates (available in houseware stores)
• A soft-fibre paintbrush, 2 cm
• Porcelaine 150 by Pébéo - Gold 44, Copper 46, Amber brown 36, Ruby red 07, Black 42
• Crackling medium Vitrea 160 by Pébéo
• Stir sticks and paint tray
• Porcelaine 150 outliners (tube with nozzle tip) by Pébéo - Copper 09
• A container of water and paper towels
• Painter's tape
• Rubbing alcohol
• Also needed: an oven and a hair dryer

Set a festive table by customizing your own holiday dishes with style at a fraction of the cost of store-bought designer dinnerware.

Paint-and-bake holiday magic starts with inexpensive clear glass dishes that are readily available in stores. With a few simple strokes of a paintbrush, glass dishes are transformed using thermo-hardening paints, combined with a crackle medium and liner designs. Other wonderful hand-painted pieces can easily be crafted to deck your home for the holidays, such as vases, glasses and mugs, along with serving trays, bowls and even ornaments.

I used an exotic blend of spicy copper, burgundies and reds with touches of black to create this exclusive ensemble. Painting the plates on the back allows the texture and pattern of glass dishes to still be visible. I chose to use Pébéo Porcelain 150 paints because the colours are more opaque. For a translucent look, you can opt to use Vitrea 160 glass paints.

Wash the glass dishes with soapy water to remove any trace of grease. Stir and place selected paint colours in a paint tray. Prepare a container of water and paper towels, to clean the paintbrushes between each colour. To quickly clean mishaps if needed, keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol handy.

Dinner plates

The dinner plates are painted in a solid copper colour with a crackle finish. Apply a coat of copper Porcelaine 150 underneath the plates using a soft paintbrush in a circular clockwise motion to completely cover the surface. Use a hair dryer for only a few minutes to dry the plates. Once dry, apply the crackling medium Vitrea 160 over the copper colour, going counter clockwise. This will pronounce the crackling further. Apply a thin coat for small crackling or a thicker coat for larger crackles. Dry the plates with a hair dryer. The clear or tinted dish will show through the copper crackle.

Charger plates

The charger plates have an interesting finish that is achieved by combining paint splatters, crackle medium and the layering of assorted vibrant colours with a darker dramatic backing finish. With a paintbrush tip dipped in paints, tap on the handle to scatter assorted splatters across the back of the plates using gold and black paints. Dry the plates. Apply each paint colour one at a time in varying widths going in the same direction, applying the colours beside each other, slightly overlapping and leaving some areas exposed. Apply the crackling medium and dry the plates. For the final step, the charger plates are painted black to make the previously applied colours and splatter patterns stand out.

Salad or dessert plates

The dessert plates are also painted underneath, in shades of reds and burgundies. At the centre of the plates, a square shape is left unpainted in order to see the copper colour of the dinner plate through it. Mask-off a square area with painter's tape, paint with your chosen colours, dry it, apply the crackling medium, remove the tape and dry it. For the finishing touch, add a design such as a simple square with a copper-coloured outliner on top of the plates.

Once all your plates are completed, let them dry and set for 24 hours. Place the plates in an oven and bake according to product directions. Remove the plates from the oven using oven mitts, and set aside to cool.

Variations

• For simple details, holiday dishes can also be created using stencils, rubber stamps and sponges. Using felt-tip markers, children can design their own holiday plate for Santa's midnight offering.