I gave my sister and mother these fabulous photo coasters for their birthdays last month and my sister jokingly said “you should write a guest post on Tidy Tangle about how to make them”.   So here I am “guest” posting. I might add that I have been studying my little heart out and working hard with my web development business and spending one more minute at the computer to blog is less than appealing so I apologize for my silence, but it’s been a necessary evil to keep my sanity. Part of the battle of learning to juggle it all is dropping a ball from time to time so you don’t drop all of them and run for shelter!  But thanks to my sister for keeping the dream alive and providing some wonderful posts!

These coasters were a Pinterest find, but instead of fancy paper, I printed a photo on photo paper and used that instead. The outcome is a very stunning, very inexpensive gift especially for all those Mothers out there. If you don’t use coasters in your house, you can always lean them on a shelf or hang them on the wall.

Here is your supply list:

• Mod Podge (or watered down Elmer’s glue)
• Sponge applicator brush
• Photos printed on 4×6 photo paper (the final photo will be cut down to 4×4 so be sure you crop accordingly)
• 4 1/4″ plain, white bathroom tile from Home Depot or similar store ($.16 a tile – what a steal!)
• Felt pads for the underside of the tile
• Paper cutter (not necessary, but will help when cropping your photos to the right size)

Surprisingly, my Pinterest pin is a dead end now.  The website must have died.  Oh, well, here’s another equally good tutorial on how to do the coasters: http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/03/30/diy-coasters/

When I did my coasters, I did two coats of Mod Podge about 20 minutes apart.  I didn’t have enough dry time between coats for my mother’s coasters and when I stacked them, they stuck together.  So be sure to let as much time as you can between coats.  I also skipped the waterproof acrylic sealer.  I figured the glue was enough coating to protect.  I could be wrong so use it if you think that’s best.  Also, one of my coats I applied horizontally and the other I did vertically to create a nice linen finish (see the first photo – you can kind of make that out).  You can experiment with this – perhaps diagonally…or wavy…

And finally, have fun!  This really is a super simple, stunning gift with so many possibilities.  Before long, we may have a whole house covered in coasters – why not?