So the first thing I made (well, technically the second- I made a bunch of beaded wrap bracelets but accidentally deleted all my photos) were these tile photo coasters.
I read two different tutorials which were basically the same and went to work. (If you want to look at those two here they are- number 1 and number 2.)
The materials you need are:
- 4"x4" tiles; both the tutorials used a tumbled marble, I liked the rough edges but didn't want as many holes on the top so I went with a porcelain tile. I think I paid $0.44 per tile at Lowes.
- white tissue paper; don't worry about folds, trust me they'll lay flat when you modpodge them onto the tile.
- cardstock
- gloss or matte modpodge
- foam brush
- acrylic clear coat
- felt or cork for the bottom; I used felt and I think I might eventually change it to cork. The felt isn't as thick and there is still some scraping on the table sometimes.
Steps:
First you need to decide on your photos. I chose some from our many travels to Japan. I plan on making some for family and I'm going to use old black and white photos. They need to be cropped to fit your tiles (4"x4").
Cut a piece of tissue paper an inch or two larger than the sheet of cardstock. Lay it on top and wrap the overhang onto the back and tape it. Then you print your pictures by running the tissue/cardstock through your printer! It makes it so the printer doesn't tear the tissue to bits. Brilliant right? Some people are so smart!
After your pics are printed, cut them down to the right size. I laid mine on top of the tiles to make sure they were going to work. My tile corners are rounded so I ended up trimming them to fit that.
Brush a layer of modpodge onto the tile and carefully lay your picture on while wet. Make sure to kinda push it around and situate it before you paint a healthy layer of modpodge on top. I liked the edges torn so I used my brush and fingernail to delicately tear them just a teeny bit. Or if you prefer, you can tear the edges slightly when cutting them out. If your picture gets a large tear or something, immediately wash it off in the sink. That way you can re-use the tile when you try again.
After the modpodge fully dries, take them outside, lay them on some cardboard and spray a layer of acrylic on them. I did two layers. I don't know if two was overkill, but I felt "better safe than sorry".
Once the acrylic dries, glue your cork or felt on back and you're done!
They were so easy to do and I love them! Dave is going to make me a wooden case for them sometime, but for now they just stack neatly on the coffee table. And one of the great things about them is if we ever break one, they're easy to replace! Or if we ever need more than 6, it's also easy to add to the set.
