Friday, September 2, 2011

Make Your Own Tile Coasters

I stayed at my mom's house last weekend. While we were having coffee Sunday morning she mentioned that she wished she had some coasters but every time she went to buy them, she was put off by the prices. I mean, seriously, $20.00 for a set of four seems a bit much. So, while surfing the web I found a tutorial for homemade coasters. Lightbulb moment! "I'll just make Mom some coasters!" I thought. And that's what I did. They were super easy and they turned out darling.

Homemade Tile Coasters

What you'll need:
4 tiles - $0.16 cents at home depot
scrapbook paper in whatever style you choose
Mod Podge - $6.00 at hobby lobby, but I used a coupon so I got it for $4.00 or something like that. I think you can get this at any craft store
Clear spray paint - $4.00 at Home Depot
16 felt circles or squares - $3.00 at Home Depot BUT I saw them at Joann's today for $6.00 and it looked like there were a lot in the package. So, you may want to price them out.

Total cost: Somewhere between ten and twelve dollars. However, the mod podge I can use for a ton of other crafts since I barely used any of it, and I have left over spray paint. I can make a few more sets of coasters if I want. So, one time investment of $12.00. Future cost for more coasters, probably closer to $5.00, maybe even less. Cheap, original, and fabulous!


To make the coasters take one tile and trace it onto the back of your scrapbook paper (If you want the sides of the tile covered with paper, you'll need to make the square bigger and you may need to trim the corners. I just traced it to the size of the tile. It was easy and still worked great). I used one style of paper for all of mine, but I think it would be fun to use different coordinating styles to create a set.
After you trace the square cut them out then cover the top of one tile with mod podge. I stuck my hand in a plastic bag and wiped it onto the tile because I didn't have a paint brush. It worked pretty well. A paint brush would work as well. After you cover the tile put one of the square of paper on top of the tile, line it up evenly with the edges, and smooth it out.
It should look like this:
Repeat this step for all four tiles.
After I'd glued the paper to my tiles I put some mod podge on my finger and smoothed the tiny lip of the paper over the edge of the tile. Like this:
I didn't leave any mod podge visible. I made sure it was all wiped away.
The following step I did but I did it too late. So make sure you do this. After you get all your paper on your tiles, wipe mod podge over the entire thing. Mod podge is a glaze so when it dries it should give it more of a glass appearance. I did this after I applied a coat of paint. I think it would have worked better before I applied the paint. After you apply the mod podge, let the tiles dry and then take the project outside or to a well-ventilated area such as an open garage.

Here is a tile with a coat of mod podge on top of it. The tile to the left is drying. The tile to the right I had barely applied before I took the pic.
Paint all of your tiles with a coat of clear spray paint. The can said to keep it sixteen inches or something from the surface you're aiming for. I didn't. I was more like four inches from my tiles. I wanted them to look like they had a thick glaze so I applied a thick coat of paint. It seemed to work.

I let the first coat of paint dry for twenty minutes or so... until it felt dry when I touched it. Then I applied a second coat, this time thicker than the first. I also sprayed the paint around the sides of the coasters. The can was probably two inches from the tile. I wanted a good, thick coat because I didn't want to run the risk of the paper coming up or something silly like that. Again, I let it dry for a while. The can said twenty minutes, but I put on a thick coat so I let it dry a little longer. Just to be safe. :)

When that was done, I stuck the felt pads to the bottom of the coasters. They were pre-sticky so I just peeled off the backing and stuck them in the corners.
Ta-Da! My coasters were done.

These coasters were ridiculously easy. If you want some fun coasters, definitely make some! It was well worth it and they were cheaper than I was going to get at the store. If I ever get wood furniture (mine is tile right now) I'll probably make myself some.

Oh. P.S. Don't do this:
See, sometimes I'm a bit of a ditz. I was thinking, "Okay. The paint is clear so it should be fine to paint my tiles on the cement. It'll dry clear. No one will ever know." Yeah... not so much. Now I have four perfectly square spots on my cement. Whoops.

P.P.S. Here is a link to the site where I found the original coasters. They used smaller felt pads so their coasters didn't stick up as high. I like that better. When you're looking for them, look for the smaller ones :D

No comments:

Post a Comment