Tile Photo Coasters

We did this cute craft on a Saturday at church a couple weeks ago where we made tile photo coasters, and my sister in law asked about how they were made, so I thought I’d share it here. They were quite easy to make, I think.

You just need plain white 4x4 tiles, a sponge paintbrush, modge podge paste, and a spray-on clear acrylic sealer. (You can also use sand paper to scuff up the edges of the photos, but I didn't end up doing that with mine). You need photos that are cut to 4x4 squares. The photos can be black and white or color.

Supposedly, it works with normal photos, or with photos printed from the computer on either photo paper or just normal printer paper, but I printed mine on photo paper and it didn't work well -- the modge podge was taking the ink of the pictures off the photo paper (but others used other types of photo paper and had no problem). So after the first failed attempt, I pulled the pictures off the tiles and cleaned the sticky off, then just printed the pictures on normal printer paper and they worked great.

So, anyways, you first use the sponge brush to put a thin layer of modge podge on the face of the tile. Then you center the picture and stick it down (I used the side of my hand or my thumb to smooth out any air bubbles – but it’s nice, because if one of your tiles happens to have an air bubble or big wrinkle that won’t come out, you can re-do it – just remove the picture, wash off the tile, re-print the photo, and start again – so it doesn’t waste the tile if you make a mistake – perfect for the perfectionist). Let it dry for a few minutes then put another thin layer of modge podge over the top of the photo tile. The texture of the paintbrush will be visible (and can look kind of cool), although this texture won’t be quite as noticeable after it is sealed and it all dries.

Wait until it’s dry, then spray on the sealer – I was told not to hold the spray can too close, or it can get drippy. Then wait till they all dry – probably best to wait overnight to be sure.  We didn’t put anything on the back of our coasters, but I saw online that some people attach some pieces of cork so the coasters won’t possibly scratch the table.

We don’t really use coasters at our house, so I plan to try to mount them on the wall somehow – we’ll see how that turns out.