Coasters

I wrote this a long time ago, and know I have more pictures. But, they must be on my camera still which would take oh-so-long to get onto this post.

I’ve been making a bunch of coasters for an upcoming church craft fair. Initially I made a couple 2-pc sets with “Mr. and “Mrs.” on the front to encourage purchases for all the weddings happening at church. But then, without a cricut, I got really tired of cutting out the letters and skipped to 4-pc sets of cropped scrapbooking paper. Then I thought I could use up some of my cool old scrapbooking paper, but it turns out I only have old scrapbooking paper. Cool, notsomuch. Just a few sheets of “cool.”

Regardless, with a few trips to Michael’s and Home Depot I have created nearly 2 dozen coasters. After the first 4, I got a LOT better, and you can benefit from my lessons!

1) Buy the tiles at Home Depot, white bathroom tiles, 4.25x4.25 inches. They are $.16 ea. (I initially paid a quarter each from a haggler at a garage sale because I didn’t know the sale price!)
2) Plan on using more Mod Podge then you’ve ever used in your life.
3) Splurge for acrylic sealing gloss. ($8? For a can. "Acrylic Gloss" use a 40% off coupon)
4) Splurge again ($2.49) for 16 vinyl “bumpers” that will be applied to the bottom of each tile. (I ended up getting a bunch on ebay)

1) Choose an appropriate Mod Podge brush. I am in love with a white one that has since been crowned “ONLY FOR MOD PODGE.” The black spongy brushes left black spongy glue residue, and black paintbrushes left black brush hairs on my shiny colored tiles. So far this brush has been the BESTEST!
2) Trim your paper of choice down to 4x4 squares. If you want to print something onto the paper before trimming (I did this once, with my “Mr./Mrs” and it was cute but I’m not good at spacing it all out perfectly.
3) Apply a light layer of Mod Podge to the top of each 4x4 paper square and also the top of your tiles. (don’t attach yet). Once dry, apply a light layer to the other side of your paper square. You’ve just plasticized your paper, which will make it a lot easier to adhere to the tile if you need to reposition or squeeze out air bubbles.
4) Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the tile and a little to the back of your coaster cover paper. Stick together. Take care to push out air bubbles and make sure your paper is fully adhered on all sides to the tile completely. If you need to apply a bit more Mod Podge to the edges to make sure this happens, do it.
5) Apply 3-4 more layers of mod podge to the coaster, making SURE SURE SURE each time to really seal those edges. If you are Mod Podging 8 or more tiles at a time, the first ones are dry by the time you finish the last. Don’t make the layers TOO thick or messy, though, because your glue WILL dry bumpy and foggy if you are messy. (this rule is hard for me to follow.)
6) Take the tiles to the garage and apply two LIGHT layers of acrylic gloss, leaving lots of time to dry in between applications. This makes your coaster shiny and smooth. You won’t even see the brush texture from your Mod Podging at this point.
7) Apply the vinyl bumpers (or, if you are really cheap, the felt circle pads that are not as pretty…cough [voice of experience])
8) Wrap and sell! Or gift! These would be super cute monogrammed or themed for a family or with key phrases. If I had a cricut cutter I might have tried that a little harder.