Before and After - Tiled Tray

Friends of ours were getting rid of this tray:

  
Fair enough.  I think the lemon motif has seen its day.

I could have painted it, or mod podged it, but I wanted to try tiling.

I got my supplies together.

I flipped over my tiles and cut the sheets to size.

Now if there are 10 ways to do this project the wrong way - I can tell you I found an 11th.

The grout container said to fill "with water to the fill line".

Do you see a fill line anywhere?

So I filled it to the top.

Of course the fill line was indicated on the OUTSIDE of the container.

Even if I had noticed it, how could I tell from the inside if I'd hit the accurate fill line indicated on the outside?

{insert stream of expletives here}

So I had to pour out some of the water without losing all of the grout.

Paper towel filter didn't work.

Dishcloth filter didn't work.

If you can't get the water out, thicken what's in;
So I improvised...

I added a handful of playsand.

Not thick enough.

I added 4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour.
(the reasoning here was that it thickens gravy).
Doesn't quite work the same with grout.

Finally, I used polyfill to thicken the grout.

Not perfect, but good enough.

I spread it on with a kitchen spatula.

I gave it a few days to dry (and to see if bugs would be attracted to the flour component).

Not too bad...

Fingers crossed it holds up.

If you do it the correct way, it should be amazing!

I'm filling that cup with something more potent than tea let me tell you!

Linked to:

Between Naps on the Porch

Have a great one!