This year, I decided to make coasters for my niece, Liz.
A year or so ago, Rob was given a set of coasters from a co-worker for Christmas and I loved how she did them. I found the pin she used on Pinterest (and a bunch of others) and kinda went from there.
I LOVED HOW THEY TURNED OUT!
I decided to make more...
My brother-in-law's mother needed a set of the kids....
and Rob's Aunts who have visited...need a set for each of their travels here.
But, I was out of the tiles that were left in the upstairs bathroom from when the house was built. :) Off to Lowes. Couldn't find any tiles like I had...OHHH they had stone ones! Great for the Alaskan theme!
Hmmm...how about trivets??? My sisters, niece, nephew...
Back to Lowes. This time a different store. OH they had ones that were similar to the original tiles I used! 19 cents each...got a bunch of them along with the 6x6 Italian stone for the trivets.
I had a great idea...need to go buy a few mugs and use my porcelain pens to decorate them ... to go with the coasters!
I asked Liz and Ryan to send me their signatures...and tried to copy them the best I could.
Amelia wanted to make a set for Andrea. She picked out the picture and the mug. FYI...Andrea makes the BEST Hot Chocolate on the planet Earth. It seemed fitting.
Why not a gift for her dance teacher?
Made another for Grammy, as I seemed to remember scrambling for a coaster at the computer desk...perfect.
Oops..the one I made for her dance teacher had fuzz stuck on. Will make another and try to fix this one for dad. Sanded and resprayed the poly. Perfect! Dad gets one too!
However, now I had a problem. Hahahaha!
These take A LONG time to finish...well if you have a deadline and making a million of them :) Easy to make really, but drying times make it a week from start to finish. Packages needed to be mailed!
AND even worse...I made Liz's set first and used regular copy paper and craft bond glue to secure the pic..then I sealed it with acrylic sealer, then about 5 coats of spray polyurethane (I think this is how I made her set..hee hee). A day to dry between each process.
The others I tried something different. (Actually, I think each was made a bit differently. hahaha.) I used modge lodge to secure a heavier copy of paper (as they were scratchy stone) and then acrylic sealer, then the spray poly.
Much better as Liz' was warped by the time I made quite a few sets (you can kinda see it in the pics). AND no time to redo hers. In fact, I was waiting for the trivets and Grammy's set to dry as I was packing up their boxes to ship....AND FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES! ugh.
I asked for photos Christmas morning. Here are my sister Donna's, niece Katie and nephew Steven's trivets .
I did include a funny note to Liz with hers to explain I would make a new set if this one doesn't work out. Funny, the person I originally made them for...got the worst batch! hahaha.
I really have no idea how they will hold up.
I did distress the sides of the coasters I made for his aunt's stone coasters and on all the trivets, as the stone seemed to need a rougher, softer edge.
I cut and glued cork that I bought at Lowe's to the back with Liquid Nails (oh yet another day of drying time :) Nothing else seemed to work as well. The liquid nails was Rob's idea.
The porcelain mugs I have made before. Dad's Valentine gift. Instructions are in that post. I do love making these and was pondering making Christmas dishes next year with a simple design. Will see.
Time to change the chalkboard.
I liked this quote as it still implies Christmas :)
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