The most exciting and relieving piece of news of my recent days is that the application I submitted to live in this dreamy old house with a group of incredible women was approved. This means I now get have incredible adventures with beautiful new friends and have the added bonus of coming home to an adorable house with walls and a dishwasher and perfect, creaky wooden stairs. Undeserved blessings are the most humbling kind.
Now that the idea of having a place to live has become a concrete (pun always intended) reality, it’s infinitely easier to imagine what my life will look like in the coming year. And it’s serving as an impetus to actually create some of those crafts I’ve been pinning for the day I actually may have a need for light switch covers and throw pillows.
Which is why today, after lunch, I found myself wandering the aisles of The Home Depot looking for tiles to turn into coasters. The most impressive part of this outing was the fact that my ineloquently-phrased inquiry as to where I might find “those little felty sticky things you put on the bottom of…stuff” was completely understood by a rather perceptive employee and his directions to “aisle 16, halfway down on the left” resulted in me finding exactly what I was looking for. So far, this is absolutely the most painless project I’ve ever undertaken. Definitely much easier than that time in middle school that I decided I was going to save the world by turning all of those discarded milk jugs and toilet paper rolls into lamps shaped like pigs that actually emitted no light due to the thick layers of acrylic paint I slathered them in. Yes, I eventually realized that milk jugs and toilet paper tubes are among the easiest items ever created to recycle. No, shockingly, I did not acquire a small fortune due to lamp sales.
The inspiration/instructions for this project came from this post.
One afternoon and just like that, I’ve got 12 new coasters and a fun way to put some of those Instagram photos I worked so hard on to good use.
Here are a couple pro-tips for making this project as painless as possible:
1. If you have a pretty good printer and some photo paper, just print your own photos at home. Then you can crop them to the right size before printing them and save yourself the heartbreak of measuring, hoping you’ll like the framing, cutting, and realizing you really don’t. Some photos look lame when you crop them like this. Save yourself some money and know exactly what your photos will look like ahead of time.
2. I asked around The Home Depot for some matte white tiles and found out I’d have to special order an entire box of them. Since a whole village doesn’t need that many coasters, I declined the offer. My concern was that the photos wouldn’t stick well to the glossy tile. This was a non-issue. I would also advise against roughing up your tiles to improve the bond between the photo and the tile. While the science of this is accurate, aesthetically, I think you’ll prefer your tiles unscratched.
3. Flip your tiles upside-down while you’re waiting for the Mod Podge to dry after the first step when you just put glue on the back of the photo and place it on the tile. This will prevent the edges of your pictures from curling up.
4. Don’t skip the sealant. Mod Podge is water-based so the integrity of your coaster may be comprised if placed in the presence of liquids. Since this is its sole purpose, it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to prepare it to do its job as well as possible. Though virtually anything is more embarrassing than the colors on a coaster you made running during a dinner party, this would probably still be annoying.
Happy creating.
One afternoon and just like that, I’ve got 12 new coasters and a fun way to put some of those Instagram photos I worked so hard on to good use.
Here are a couple pro-tips for making this project as painless as possible:
1. If you have a pretty good printer and some photo paper, just print your own photos at home. Then you can crop them to the right size before printing them and save yourself the heartbreak of measuring, hoping you’ll like the framing, cutting, and realizing you really don’t. Some photos look lame when you crop them like this. Save yourself some money and know exactly what your photos will look like ahead of time.
2. I asked around The Home Depot for some matte white tiles and found out I’d have to special order an entire box of them. Since a whole village doesn’t need that many coasters, I declined the offer. My concern was that the photos wouldn’t stick well to the glossy tile. This was a non-issue. I would also advise against roughing up your tiles to improve the bond between the photo and the tile. While the science of this is accurate, aesthetically, I think you’ll prefer your tiles unscratched.
3. Flip your tiles upside-down while you’re waiting for the Mod Podge to dry after the first step when you just put glue on the back of the photo and place it on the tile. This will prevent the edges of your pictures from curling up.
4. Don’t skip the sealant. Mod Podge is water-based so the integrity of your coaster may be comprised if placed in the presence of liquids. Since this is its sole purpose, it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to prepare it to do its job as well as possible. Though virtually anything is more embarrassing than the colors on a coaster you made running during a dinner party, this would probably still be annoying.
Happy creating.
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