Photo Coasters

I made some photo coasters last night for my father in law.  I’ve made larger photo tiles before, but never coasters.  I really like how they turned out, and I definitely thought about keeping them for myself and finding something for him on Amazon…..

I didn’t take any pictures early on in the process, but it’s really pretty simple.  I found four photos of my kids that I liked.  Using Photoshop, I cropped them to 3.75 inches square so that they would fit nicely on my 4 inch square tiles.  Any tile from the hardware store will work.  I made each photo sepia toned using the Beautiful Sepia action from Colorful Actions by Mindy.  I also put a negative frame around each by House of 3.  After I had the photos looking like I wanted, I printed them on my home printer and cut them to 3.75 inches square.  That was the hardest part – for some reason it always takes me forever to choose photos…

Next I applied a thin layer of modge podge to the top of the tile, and adhered the picture to the tile.  Then I put modge podge on top of the photo, making sure to really coat the edges.  I used a disposable foam brush, and tried to keep my brush strokes all running horizontally across the coaster.  You will see brush strokes with modge podge, so don’t worry about it, just try to keep them linear.  Or you can run the strokes in both directions for a canvas-like look.

After that coat dried, I applied another coat of modge podge.  I was impatient, so I used a hair dryer to speed along the drying process.  I cut squares of black felt to put on the bottom of each coaster so that they wouldn’t scratch the table.  To adhere them, I sprayed the felt square with spray glue and then placed the tile on top of it.  Finally, I finished the whole process with two coats of spray sealer on the top of the coasters.  I’m sure any brand would work.  I used Americana gloss spray sealer – I just looked for one that said it would resist water.  Time will tell if it works…hope so, since it’s a gift!

during the spray sealing process

Here is a close-up of each finished coaster.  Such cute little kiddos, aren’t they?

And now, are you ready for the cuteness corniness?  My father in law is really going to make fun of me for this.

the back of the tag

I know, I know.  So incredibly cheesy.  For the tag, I used a plain manila tag, inked the edges, stamped with a background text stamp, and ran it through my printer for the main text.  I used some cute ribbon and bakers twine to finish off the gift.  I like that the colors aren’t too feminine since it is for Father’s Day.  I sure hope Grandpa likes them!  If he doesn’t, at least I know Nana will. 

Happy Father's Day!