Because you have not heard from me in a while, you would think that I have not been up to much. Well, actually the exact opposite is true. I did take time off for Christmas and New Years to hang out with family and friends to just enjoy the season. A gal is entitled to that every once in a while, right? However, my creative mind has been on overdrive having time to browse Pinterest, and plan some very fabulous, creative, wonderfulness for my home in the coming year. It is this time each year that I get the urge to do something to my home. This year it started with the dinning room and then will move to the living room, and of course right on up to the now three guest rooms. Oh, how sad to say I have three kid rooms that are now called "guest rooms", really this cannot be true.
Today I am showing you this easy, fun, and inexpensive gift idea I made for my friends this year at Christmas. I started out at Lowes and purchased 3x3 tiles.
I really liked these that had a bit of texture and some imperfections around the edges. They happened to be some of the more expensive tiles, all of 33 cents each. But you can get them for as little as 8 cents a tile.
Picking out the scrap booking paper was fun. I wanted the four different patterns to coordinate but have some contrast in color as well. I cut the paper into squares that were about a 1/2 smaller than the tile so the coaster would appear to have a boarder all the way around.
Because the tiles had a rounded corner, I used a corner rounder paper punch and rounded all of the corners of each square of paper. This also helps prevent any corners that might want to pop up when Mod Podging later.
Laying all of the tiles on a piece of plastic, I Mod Podged each tile with probably 4 or 5 coats allowing to dry in between. Once you have decided you have enough Mod Podge on your coasters let them dry over night and then take a piece of super fine steel wool and a bit of water and sand each one until smooth. This takes all of the brush marks or bubbles out of the final coat. Once that was dry, I sprayed them with a clear coat sealer to make them water resistant. For the final step, I glue a piece of cork to the bottom of each one. Sorry no picture of that, but really there is a piece of thin cork on the underside.
I made 12 sets of these and gave them to my friends, designers I work for, and one set went to a gal that invited me and my girls for a tour of her home which was a Christmas wonderland.
I tied each stack with a bit of twine and there you have it a handmade gift that everyone can use.
I am participating in the following link ups: Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff,Boogiboard Cottage, Its So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, Dittle Dattle, Sew Can Do, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Today's Creative Blog,Sugar and Dots, My Girlish Whims, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Woodsy, The Tablescaper, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter,Itsy Bitsy Paper, So Much Ado, One Tough Mother, Sweet Peas and Bumblebees, Handy Man, Crafting Woman, Women Who Do It All, Seven Thrity-three, Someday Crafts, Tea Rose Home. Lil' Luna, Momma Hen Scoop, Sugar and Dots, {Primp}, Sommewhat Simple, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Gluesticks, Momnivore's Dilemma, Beyond the Picket Fence, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Simply Sweet Home,Truly Lovely, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Someday Crafts, Passionately Artistic, Goodbye city, Hello suburbs, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Make it Great Monday,Vintage Gwen, Sew Country Chick, 5 Minutes Just for Me
These are so pretty! Great tip about sanding to remove any bumps or bubbles!
Posted by: Lauren | January 09, 2012 at 04:50 PM
This look great. Kudos. My wife says she is going to go online and get some tiles at http://www.x-tile.net and we are going to work on this tomorrow.
Posted by: Jaredlikespineapple | May 17, 2013 at 06:10 PM