DIY Drink Coasters

I was looking for something to do last Saturday and I remembered that I had bought a stack of tiles at Home Depot a while ago. I intended to make drink coasters out of them and I put them away so I could collect stickers to decorate them. I was thinking I would find some Harley Davidson stickers for a custom made drink coaster for Timmy. I have been looking for a cool fairy sticker, or maybe Mickey Mouse for a coaster for me.

I still haven't found any stickers, but I decided I would try to make the tiles into custom coasters using stencils and paints. I can always buy more tiles when I find some good stickers.

So I went digging through my craft stuff and I found some supplies to make the coasters.

I found 9 tiles,
a roll of cork to cover the backs of the tiles/coasters
Modpodge to seal the tiles
Paints in colors that match our living room, and a few brushes
Gorilla glue
(not shown: ruler and stencils)

First I drew on the tiles in pencil. Since I am not an artist, I used stencils to make my letters straight.

I drew a "B" for Bruns on 4 of the tiles.

First I tried to paint the letters with black craft paint and a small brush. It worked ok, but I tried using a black sharpie to color in the letters and it was much easier to use the sharpie.
After that I used the sharpie to make all of the rest of the coasters.

Then I put about 5 coats of mod podge on each coaster to seal in the sharpied "B"

(yeah, I'm wearing tinkerbell pj's)

I tried the "B"'s at different angles, I'm not sure which way I like them best. I like both ways.

Here are the finished "B" coasters, after I put the cork backing on:

I also made a coaster for my Sweetie that says "Tim", and I made a coaster for myself with my name. I REALLY LOVE the way these turned out! I think I like these better than the "B's"

And I couldn't resist making a coaster to remember our wedding. (In case you haven't read our wedding story, read about it here. It's a GREAT story!)

I used really small stickers for that one, and I mod podged over them to seal them in.

All of the coasters got a cork backing. It turned out I didn't need to use the glue because the cork had a sticky back. I just had to measure and cut the cork to the size of the tiles. The cork is very thin and cut easily with scissors.

I really love the way these turned out, and I have more ideas to try. I would still like to do my sticker idea, and I think I'll try to find some interesting paper to cover the tiles too. Maybe some sheet music with the musical notes would be nice for a set of coasters for my music loving mom?

Lots of possibilities!!!