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.

Tissue Paper and Magazine Clippings
Use torn strips of tissue paper either in the same color spectrum or another complimentary color and use the Matte medium (or mod podge) to adhere the tissue paper randomly all over the face of the license plate. Paint a bit of the medium on the license plate, place the tissue and then paint over the tissue. Don't worry about wrinkles they just add to the look. Once this dries turn over and do the same on the back side. For my Ogre License Plate Wall Hanging I used white tissue paper embedded with sparkles. You may choose to use two or three colors of tissue paper as I did leaving some of the base paint color showing in places. Now find a magazine and look through it for inspiration. As I was planning this wall art to be for a boys room I chose a picture of a lizard, a Beware of Frog sign, the word green and the words Home Sweet Home. Randomly place your magazine cutouts on the license plate until you are pleased with the placement. Once you know where you want them use the matte medium to glue them down just as you did with the tissue papers. Once this dries apply a torn piece of white tissue paper over the magazine clippings to help seal and blend them into the piece. Once this dries apply one more coat of matte medium all over and allow to dry.

Making and Embellishing the Wall Art Hanger

You are now ready to create the hanger for your Altered License Plate Wall Art. I used a piece of 18 gauge galvanized steel wire I had purchased at the hardware store for a previous craft project. Estimate the length of wire you will need and use a pair of wire cutters to cut from the roll. Now is when your beads and embellishments come into play. I chose a couple large holed beads and placed theme on the wire. I then threaded the wire through the upper right hand hole on the license plate from the back. I then bent it upward and twisted the wire around itself several times. The two beads rest over this twisted wire. I then used a pair of jewelry pliers to make a few twists in the wire. A pencil will work nicely for this also. I then added another few beads and chose a larger bead to embellish the top of the hanger. Once this bead was strung I twisted the wire on itself and reversed the process for the opposite side of the license plate. I then added a few lengths of yard to the hanger for added embellishment.

Embellishing the License Plate

I then decided to use the bottom holes of the license plate to further embellish the Altered Art Wall Hanging. For the bottom left and right holes I cut different lengths of twine, leather and yarn. I pinched these in the middle and pushed them through the holes from the back side. I then had a loop at the front of the license plate. Next I lifted the hanging strips up from the front and through the hoop from the bottom. I then wiggled them a bit up and down to tighten the strips. At this point I decided to add beads and knots to the different strips and to cut them at different lengths.

Conclusion

My old castoff motorcycle license plate has now been recycled into a piece of Altered Art. This Ogre Altered License Plate Wall Art wall-hanging is now ready for a little boys bedroom door or the wall above his pet frogs tank. This altered license plate wall art could easily be made to fit into any rooms decor. Pink for a little girl, dusty rose for grandma, black and white or fire engine red for dad. or yellow fir mom's kitchen. You could even create polka-dots, checkers or stripes with the paint and tissue paper. I'm even considering a cupid theme and a comics theme. Alternate embellishment items could be rusted nuts and bolts, buttons, charms, strips of cloth, old jewelry. How many ideas can you come up with? Try this fun and artistic project and let your imagination run wild!!