I found this idea on pinterest last year before the holidays and my kids made some of these for their grandparents, when I was asked to teach a class on photo crafting at our annual church ladies conference, this was an immediate thought.
However, there were a few things I wanted to change after I made these last year, so learn from my error and I think this is a better way to do them. All of the tutorials I have seen say to use Modge Podge...well when I did this I found that brushing the modge podge across the pictures sometimes starts to blur the image. So this time around I did not use Modge Podge as an adhesive nor as the top coat and I am much more pleased with the results.
Supplies:
Tiles (Lowes 16 cents each)
cork backing (bought a large roll at Hobby Lobby for $9.99 with 40% off so a little over $6 for a large roll that will easily make you 5 or 6 sets of four coasters.
Spray Adhesive (Again with Hobby Lobby $6.99 with 40% off so a bit over $4
Spray Laquer (Ace Hardware $4.50)
Photos
Your total cost out put is going to be just shy of $15 if you use the coupons but you will not use but a fraction of the spray adhesive and you will have some laquer left over too, if you make 6 sets of 4 coasters each your per project price should be less than $2 per set.
However, there were a few things I wanted to change after I made these last year, so learn from my error and I think this is a better way to do them. All of the tutorials I have seen say to use Modge Podge...well when I did this I found that brushing the modge podge across the pictures sometimes starts to blur the image. So this time around I did not use Modge Podge as an adhesive nor as the top coat and I am much more pleased with the results.
Supplies:
Tiles (Lowes 16 cents each)
cork backing (bought a large roll at Hobby Lobby for $9.99 with 40% off so a little over $6 for a large roll that will easily make you 5 or 6 sets of four coasters.
Spray Adhesive (Again with Hobby Lobby $6.99 with 40% off so a bit over $4
Spray Laquer (Ace Hardware $4.50)
Photos
Your total cost out put is going to be just shy of $15 if you use the coupons but you will not use but a fraction of the spray adhesive and you will have some laquer left over too, if you make 6 sets of 4 coasters each your per project price should be less than $2 per set.
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I started off with picking out my photos and purchasing tiles, again only 16 cents each at Lowes. Your 4x6 pictures will be a bit too big for the coasters so just use the coaster as a guide and crop down the photo, I like to do it just enough that the coaster has a small border around the picture.
Here are the other two products I used, I think any lacquer would work, I just happened to have some of this left over from other projects I was doing, just don't make the mistake I made first and purchase the Lacquer without checking the color of the cap...yup, I did that and when I started spraying black spray paint lacquer all over my to-be Christmas gifts I nearly had a heart attack! So, make sure you purchase lacquer with a clear cap!
Here are the other two products I used, I think any lacquer would work, I just happened to have some of this left over from other projects I was doing, just don't make the mistake I made first and purchase the Lacquer without checking the color of the cap...yup, I did that and when I started spraying black spray paint lacquer all over my to-be Christmas gifts I nearly had a heart attack! So, make sure you purchase lacquer with a clear cap!
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I had my cut photo, I held it over the kitchen trashcan and sprayed the back of it with the spray adhesive and then carefully placed it on the tile and smoothed it down so there were no tiny air bubbles. I then was immediately able to take the photo coaster to the garage and spray with lacquer. I let the layers of lacquer dry about 30 minutes to an hour between and I usually do between 2-3 layers of lacquer.
After all of this is done and the coaster has dried sufficiently overnight you can place it over the cork roll with sticky backing and use the coaster as a guide to cut the cork. Stick it to the back of your coaster and viola!!! Magic!
After all of this is done and the coaster has dried sufficiently overnight you can place it over the cork roll with sticky backing and use the coaster as a guide to cut the cork. Stick it to the back of your coaster and viola!!! Magic!
