October 12, 2012

Make Hand-Painted Tile Coasters for Only 16¢

What happens when I combine my love of doodling with a night spent on Pinterest?  Hand-painted tiles, of course!  Pinterest showed mugs from Anthropologie.  I opted for personalized tiles.  Inexpensive and super easy!  Two of my favorite things.

If you like to doodle, this is the craft for you!  Embellishing plain tile coasters, or most any dollar store ceramic, would be a great birthday party craft for kids, although adults would no doubt want to jump in and play. 
 

I picked up a bunch of tiles for only 16¢ each during a quick trip to our local Home DepotI chose 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" tiles as they are the perfect size for coasters.  



The guy at Home Depot who was helping me showed me his pink flamingo underpants so, of course, I had to take a picture. <winkie face>


Here is what you will need to make hand-painted tile coasters:


MATERIALS

  • Tile
  • Pebeo porcelaine paint pen (Available HERE)
  • Window cleaner and a paper towel
  • Nail polish remover with acetone
  • Q-Tips
  • Carbon paper (available at office supply stores), optional
  • Felt feet (or a square of felt, scissors and glue), optional

Clean your tile using window cleaner. 

Shake pen well before use.  Press tip against a hard surface repeatedly to start ink flow.  I freehanded my design, but feel free to transfer a picture using carbon paper.  If using the carbon paper transfer method, just sandwich the carbon paper between the tile and your picture.  Using a pencil, trace the picture and it will transfer to the tile.  Or, just start drawing!

The nail polish remover and Q-Tips are in case you make a mistake that you would like to erase.  I used nail polish remover then followed up with a quick wipe with window cleaner.





After you have painted your tile, allow it to air dry for 24 hours.  After 24 hours, place tile directly on the middle rack of a cold oven.  Set oven to 300 degrees and bake tile directly on rack for 30 minutes once oven has come up to temp.  Allow tile to cool in oven.  You want to avoid cracking which can be caused by a sudden change in temperature.  



Adding felt feet (found at Home Depot for 2¢ each) is optional, but I like that the coaster won't scratch a wood surface.  If you don't add feet, you can safely wash your coaster in the dishwasher after baking. 

This little tile will be a Christmas gift for my sister who lives in San Francisco.   I hope that she will like it!


If you make hand-painted tile coasters, let me know!

~Merrill

3 comments:

Shelley said...

I just love this idea! Can't wait to make some!

Shelley said...

I just love this idea! Can't wait to make some. Great holiday craft for the kids.

Anonymous said...

Hi- love the coasters you made! I did similar with the stone ones from home depot- they are simple & pretty as well- if you are interested, leave me your email & i will send pics & instructions