My girlfriend Cath found this idea to make our own coasters in the adorable Frankie magazine. The creative source was none other than the lovely Pip from Meet Me At Mikes. (Do you know that Pip has a new book coming out? You can pre-order Sew La Tea Do now from Readings and they will ship it free of charge (within Australia) when it comes into stock.)
I have been having quite a bit of fun with making my own coasters. The kids and I made a couple of sets using Chalkboard Paint a little while ago. The coasters below involved a little more work, but were still easy to make. The old Melway (Melbourne street directory) coasters are my favourite. These will be Christmas gifts for my mum and my nana. While neither of them live in Melbourne any more, they both have a love of Melbourne and I chose sections from the directory that have streets and landmarks that they know well.
What you will need to make your own coasters:
- Coasters – we bought ours from a local craft store. They are made by Kaisercraft.
- PVA Craft Glue and small brush
- Gloss paint and paint brush – we used an Estapol Gloss
- Mineral Turpentine to rinse paint brush
- Paper material to cover coasters
- Cardboard to make template of coaster shape
How to make your own coasters:
- On your cardboard trace around your coaster. Cut out the coaster shape and then trim so it fits the top of the coaster. This becomes your template.
- On the back of the paper that you are going to use, trace around the template so you will have enough shapes to cover all coasters. (Make sure the paper that you have chosen is not too thin or transparent. One set that I made using old Golden Books has some patches where you can see the writing on the other side.)
- Paint the coasters with a light covering of PVA glue. Make sure that you go right to the edges, so the paper sticks completely to the coaster.
- Allow for this to dry. (I left them overnight.)
- Paint a light coat of gloss across all of the coasters. Make sure you are gentle with the gloss when dipping the brush in and out. It can froth slightly and if you paint with this on the coasters, it produces bubbles in the finish.
- I waited 24 hours then gave them another coat.
- Waited 24 hours and then they were ready to use!
