DIY Gift For a Music Teacher – Old Music Craft

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Finding a Christmas gift for my daughter’s music teacher is a difficult task each time the holidays roll around.

Problem is, every year it’s the same preschool music teacher. So I can’t reuse crafty gift ideas. Last year, I made her a DIY fabric bookmark as her Christmas gift, and the year before, I did a musical note cross-stitch for her.

I kind of like making her quirky music-related gifts that are different from the usual gift cards, candy, or flowers that the other students seem to be gifting her.  This year, I decided to make her a Mod Podge glass plate using old sheet music.

This DIY repurposed sheet music Christmas craft was easy to make and cost less than $5 total.  Read on for the tutorial!

DIY Sheet Music and Mod Podge Plate Supplies

  • Mod Podge and brush (I used a foam brush and gloss Mod Podge)
  • Old sheet music (You make your own! Keep reading for instructions)
  • Glass plate (Mine came from Dollar Tree)
  • Plate stand (Also from Dollar Tree)
  • Vinyl letter (Make one with your Cricut or buy premade. Mine was from Hobby Lobby. Your letter could also be a different material such as card stock if you prefer.)
  • Scissors

How To Make Your Own Sheet Music

I’m a cellist, so I have a ton of sheet music. As a sentimental musician, I just could not bring myself to cut up any of the music. What if I want to play it again sometime? What if my daughter decides to become a cellist, and I want the music then? In the end, I just couldn’t sacrifice my own sheet music for this project.

However, it is SO easy to make your own sheet music that you can then cut with no regrets.

You will need two things:

  • Natural parchment paper (I’ve had some sitting around since I applied for college 15+ years ago and used it for my resume.)
  • Sheet music (an actual page of music from your stash or find a free online page of sheet music)

All you need to do is make a copy of your sheet music onto the parchment paper.  Or print from online to the parchment paper.  Turns out, it’s a great color for making sheet music look older, and it’s not going to hurt any music!  A win-win I think!

Mod Podge Glass Plate Tutorial

Here’s how to actually make this sheet music Christmas craft.

First, you’ll want to cut your sheet music into small pieces. You don’t want all the pieces to be perfect. Some of my papers were square and some were rectangles of different sizes. You can use a paper cutter for a little more precision or plain scissors for this part.

Next, you need to make sure your glass plate is clean. Meaning, get off all the fingerprints from the back side! Be very careful handling the plate from here on out. You don’t want permanent finger prints under the Mod Podge layer.

Then, set up all your pieces of sheet music so you can see what they look like. Sort through them and get rid of any ones that don’t have enough ink on them. I had many pieces from the edges and between lines that were just plain paper.  These won’t look as good on the our finished Mod Podge plate.

Turn your plate upside down so the base is facing you. Adhere your letter to the middle of the plate now. Remember, you’re putting it on the wrong side of the plate, so you’ll want to put the letter the wrong way as well. I used Mod Podge to get my letter to stick.  Let the Mod Podge dry before continuing.

Next, it’s time to start putting on the scrap pieces of old music! Put a thin layer of Mod Podge over the plate and start sticking the sheet music on with the wrong side facing you. Make sure to do them randomly and without a pattern to get the creative look. My Mod Podge also dried very fast, so I had to do small portions of the plate at a time. Also, I used a foam brush with the Mod Podge and found it made an even surface without any significant bubbles.

Once the back of the plate is fully covered with the sheet music, brush a thin layer of Mod Podge over all the adhered pieces. Make sure not to move any of the pieces around.

Let dry and brush on one last layer of Mod Podge.

The Finished Christmas Gift

At this point, I called my sheet music project a finished success and stopped. However, you could continue on and paint the back of the plate to make an opaque rather than clear background. Since I didn’t know the decor of the music teacher’s house, I opted for it to remain clear so it would match everything.

And that’s a wrap for this DIY music teacher Christmas gift. I hope she likes her gift this year!