Switch plates are so much fun!  I designed this knit light-switch cover for my monthly club members and was so into it that I kept going and covered some more plates with various paper images... So then I started searching around the crafty web and found all kinds of great tutorials and ideas to inspire!  

Pink Chalk Studio has an excellent how-to for fabric covered plates, using a facing to make the switch hole super neat - so clever!  Above are two of Kathy's finished plates, and below are the backs:



Another fabric switch plate tutorial can be found on tiny Décor blog:



I love this 70's Tie-Upholstered plate from the first issue of Craft: magazine!



Atlascoughed on craftster made this vibrant fabric covered plate for her kitchen:



Ohdeedoh has a small roundup of covered switch plates, including these from Martha Stewart's site:



Martha also shows us how to make Candy-Wrapper Decoupage switch plates, fun!



Helloamber on craftster made a couple of cute felt plates - I like how the tree goes outside the border:



Chico on instructables made a detailed how-to for paper-covered Custom Switch Plates:



And over on StarWars.com you'll find a tutorial by Bonnie Burton for these Switch on Bounty Hunters:



Polymer clay is a great material for switch plate making - Katie Deedy made this awesome vulture plate with Super Sculpey and spray paint, with a tutorial on Time Out New York:



Kishcrafts on craftster made this cute gnome plate with polymer clay:



Clay Squared to Infinity shows us how to make switch plates (below) with "Silly Millies" which are pre-made polymer clay canes - so you could use the same concept to make your own custom plates with your own designs... I think some kind of simple cane design, like this, might look cool on a plate.



On craftster, HSG gives a step-by-step for a pretty mosaic switch plate:



I love these coffee can plates on shelterrific blog:



Use the same concept to make tin can plates, like this awesome one by Tin Can Sally:



In jess2nola's flickr stream you'll find a how-to for this cool looking framed switch wall art:

 

And lastly, if you know how to cast aluminum, you could try making something like Sean's awesome Autobot switch plate: