Elegant Tile Coasters

Countless moisture rings on various tables I've owned can attest to the fact that I've never owned a set of coasters nor have I been very bothered by the rings. I sure like the idea of coasters though and when I saw the lovely handmade sets over at The Graphics Fairy and Calamity Anne's Adventures, I knew I had to try them out.

They were a bit messy to make (much transfer medium on my fingers) but well worth it - they're gorgeous and would make a delightful hostess or houswarming gift tied with some gorgeous ribbon and paired with a good bottle of wine or the mixings for a cooling mohito (yum!) or Bombay Saphire and tonic (my favorite!). Directions to make these are here and here so I won't post them though I will tell you how it worked out for me.

First, I used all of the same supplies except that the Lowes I went to for tumbled marble coasters/tiles didn't have any so I used porcelain that was made to look like tumbled marble and they were $.38 a piece - not bad.

Royalty free images aboud so get to searching though I will give this word of caution: it can get time consuming because there are SO many out there and if you're anything like me, you can spend many happy hours looking at all of them. Here's a pic of my letters soaking in the water:




Taking the paper backing off takes more time than the original directions led me to believe. I did some of it on a cutting board, some back in the bowl of water and yet more under running water. Then, though this wasn't in the original directions, I blotted the wet transfer before I put more glaze on it and set it on the tile. Also, even though I'd measured and cut the paper to fit the tiles, I still had to do a bit of trimming up afterward. And after removing the paper from the first transfer and having to trim it up after I'd put it on the tile with more of the glaze, I realized that it was much less messy to do this before adhearing it.

The cork went on easily too. I purchased the smallest roll from Michael's at a cost of $7.99 but which I'll get quite a few sets out of and, I'm sure, will be able to use for future projects as well. All in all, this was a really easy and fun project. I will absolutely be giving a set to several friends and my S-I-L's because I know they'll absolutely love them!

I love this project because it was only took a couple of hours (not including the 1-2 day drying time when you're finished) and you can really play with the images and fonts that you use. I was thinking that images of birds, vintage shoes (really want to try this), flourished hearts, single words could all be used - get creative!