Ogre Art: Use Old License Plates / Car Tags to Create Wall Art

Do you have an old license plate you don't know why you are saving or what to do with? Why not turn it into wall art. Here I will describe how I did just that using an old motorcycle license plate.

Supplies

First gather your supplies. I used the following:
Acrylic Gesso (This can be purchased at many craft stores including Hobby Lobby)
Acrylic Paint
Liquitex Matte Medium (Mod Podge will work just as well)
Tissue Paper (Several colors)
wire
beads
magazine clippings
yarn, twine,leather (or whatever you fancy for embellishing)
wire cutters and or pliers

Preparation

Your license plate needs to be clean of all dirt and grime and preferably in good condition, however a few dings won't hurt. Some will say you should lightly sand the surface to make the paint stick better, however I did not. Instead I painted two coats of Gesso on both sides of the license plate. Allow the gesso to dry in between coats. I suggest working each step on the front side and then the back as you go.

Creating

First Paint
Now the real fun begins. Choose your background color and paint one or two coats on both sides of the license plate allowing the paint to dry between coats. The acrylic paint I used took about 30 minutes between coats. You can speed up this drying time with a hair dryer if you wish. Now that you have your base color it is time to really get to altering.