Red, White, & Blue Serving Tray

Make a red, white, and blue serving tray in a flag pattern for summer cookouts!

Serve up your guests this summer in style with a custom DIY red, white, and blue serving tray! It’s perfect for carrying food from indoors to out. Use can even use it in your patriotic decor! It would look great sitting up on a mantel or resting on an ottoman.

This tray is easier to create than you might think and only requires a handful of supplies.

You will need a sturdy serving tray, this one is a bamboo tray I found at Old Time Pottery, and some flat glass beads. You will need 2 bags of red, one bag of blue, and 1 large bag of the mixed white/clear beads.

You will also need some epoxy resin, found at your local home improvement store (or buy the resin online here!).

Lay out the pattern you wish to use inside the tray. For my modified flag pattern, I used the pearlescent white beads as my “stars” and the clear beads as my white stripes. The bag of mixed white beads also contains some pretty frosted beads, but they are smaller than the others and may mess up the balance of your pattern. I am going to save those for vase fillers.

Space your beads as needed to fill the entire tray.

Mix epoxy resin according to box directions. If you follow the directions to a T then the resin should turn out perfectly clear when it dries.

Fill the tray enough to just cover the beads so you create a smooth flat surface.

NOTE: I placed the tray on an old vinyl tablecloth before pouring the resin in case it leaked through the tray. It did indeed leak a small amount. I left it on the tablecloth through the entire drying time. It then peeled right up from the tablecloth, leaked edges and all leaving the tablecloth in one piece. I used an utility knife to scrape the excess resin from the outside edges of the tray.

Once the resin is 100% cured then you’re free to use it how you wish. Keep out of direct sunlight for extended periods of time.

It’s perfect for taking snacks out to my kids this summer so they can eat at the picnic table. And when I’m not carrying things around on it, I’ll set it out as decor! Double whammy!