Already Addicted to Pinterest

Last week, I discovered the wonder that is Pinterest. This is entirely my new sister-in-law's fault. Yes, I've often seen hits on Google come up with Pinterest results, but have never wandered into that realm. Until she posts on her Facebook about considering joining. So I decided to head over to check it out. I signed up for my invite ~ which took a week (!) of anxiously watching my inbox. I finally got it on Wednesday. I already have 9 boards and 116 pins, and have taken a break from pinning to write this post. I have already made two new recipes from pins I've found, and made 7 projects. 

Here's one I've decided to share, custom coasters.

Materials needed:
4 4x4" porcelain tiles (got mine at Home Depot for $.16 ea)
1 piece scrapbook paper 8 1/2" by 11"(selected from my stash, but can be had for as low as $.10 on sale)
1 sheet felt 8 1/2" by 11" (got mine at Hancock Fabrics for $.29, but can get 5 for $1 at Walmart, and we used brown so they won't show as much dirt)
hot glue and gun 
Mod Podge (I made mine! Cost me $.50 and an empty jar) and small foam paintbrush
Scissors and ruler (or use your paper cutter from your Cricut, or your rotary cutter and mat)
Clear spray paint (this was the spendy part, cost me $3.98 for a can of Rustoleum at Home Depot)
Optional: 1 kid to help
 

The first thing we did was to cut our felt to fit the back. Forgive me for not having a picture (forgot as I was trying to keep the kid out of the Mod Podge), but we simply put the felt sheet down on the rotary cutting mat, lined up the tiles with the corners, and cut around the other sides with the rotary cutter. And no, the kid is not allowed to touch it. 

We then flipped the tiles over to the unfinished backs and added hot glue (again, no touchy kid - so, no picture) but I put a thin line around the edge and an "X" across the middle. I let it set for a few seconds so that I could press the felt squares against it without either burning my fingers or melting the felt (I think the first is WAY more likely). 

We tried to do the paper the same way for the first tile, with tracing the tile on the sheet of paper, but then we ended up with way too much overhang (thank you X-acto knife!) which we didn't realize would be a problem until we already glued the paper on.  So we changed courses, and got out the paper cutter for the Cricut and cut 4 x 4" pieces, which left a nice edge. 

Here comes the part where the kid got to help. Using the foam brush, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the glazed side of the tile (be sure to pick off any strings from the hot glue gun or they will leave wrinkles in your paper. Not that I overlooked that and had to peel paper back up to take off a string and end up with sticky fingers or anything...) Center your square of paper on the tile and press down. Use the edge of your ruler or any other straight edge to smooth out any wrinkles. Our paper immediately started to curl up on the edges (is this normal? first experience with Mod Podge) so we flipped the tile over onto the mat while we went on to the next. Do not leave set for too long, or the paper sticks to the mat and frays when you peel it up. (I didn't do that either...)  If you bought enough tiles to make an extra set, but like me are only making one set at a time, you can also use one of the extra tiles as a weight. 

Repeat for the other tiles and allow to dry. Thin coat of Mod Podge shouldn't take long. I read some posts that used multiple coats on the top of the paper, but as Mod Podge is water soluble I would not recommend that - at all!  We took our tiles down to the garage, put them on a flattened cardboard box, 

 and coated with clear spray paint.

  
Once the first coat dried, we gave them a second coat to ensure that they would be waterproof (and extra shiny!)


We left them out in the garage for a couple hours to dry (and to get rid of the fumes!) and then brought them in to get their picture taken.  The big kid is so proud of them that it only took 4 tries for her to (almost) look at the camera during the picture!

Please disregard any wrinkles or frayed paper. Remember those hints? I learned the hard way. But we spent some nice quality time together working on this project, so it was worth it. And I have enough supplies to make 3 more sets.