Coasters, man.

Coasters, man, coasters. I'd been wanting to do this foreverrrr, but until recently I've had a serious fear of Mod Podge. I don't know, it just seems so...intimidating? Like, Mod Podge projects are for the "crafting elite", if  you will. But, Christmas is coming up and I bought 12 tiles for $1.69 so I was like, this is gonna have to happen. Away with you, crafting anxiety! I'm about to decoupage my butt off. but anywho, here's the list of what you'll need if you wanna make some! (Ps. These pics are just off my phone and they stink, I"ll have to use my Nikon and upload some better ones later.)

Materials:

• Tiles - I got 12 4x4 porcelain tiles from Home Depot, they have them for .13 a tile. (Yes, I still used my debit card for the transaction. The cashier judged me. I felt it.)
• Scrapbook paper- at least that's what I used. but I've seen these projects with printed out pictures and stuff. The paper was pretty affordable with Michael's coupons, btw.
• Mod Podge - This stuff is expensiveee, in my poor person opinion anyway, (about 6 bucks a jar) but I've read that there really is no replacement and you shouldn't try to replace it sooo, I caved and bout it. (I used the gloss finish.)
• Felt - for the bottom of the soon to be coasters, I got 2 yds for about 8 bucks at Michael's (because, where else)
• Spongey, applicatior thing -they're those sponges on a stick, literally .49 a piece for the small ones.

-So first, I cut the felt as best as I could to fit the bottom of the tile. I honestly just laid the tile on the felt and cut around it. because I am lazy. and I don't have one of those nifty, crafting, slicer cutting things (you know what I'm talking about) It didn't make for the best cut, but for a first attempt it worked good enough. After I cut out all the felt pieces I glued them to the back.
-I pretty much did the same thing in regards to cutting the scrapbook paper pieces, except this time I was fancy enough to use a ruler. I wanted to have a little bit of white around the edges so I used it to try and get the edges as straight as possible when I trimmed the paper down.
-After choosing which papers I wanted to use and cutting them out, I used the sponge to apply a thin layer of the mod podge to the back of the paper and then placed it where I wanted on the tile. Let it dry, about 15-20 minutes.
-After it's dried, place a layer of mod podge on top of the coaster in even strokes, again let it dry. (the let it dry parts are actually pretty important, you don't wanna rush these) I did a total of 4 coats to make sure it was sealed, I've heard people say they use an outdoor sealer to make sure they're really waterproof, but with a 9 month old crawling around I don't even know how much actual use these bad boys will get because he is the reason why I can't have nice things, so I didn't find the outdoor sealer to necessary. But if you plan on getting real use of your coasters, I'd say it couldn't hurt.

All in all I'm pretty happy with them, I think they're kinda sloppy, but I have a feeling I'll get the hang of it once I do more (and there will be more, if you're my friend and you're reading this...merry christmas early?) but most importantly I'm happy to have conquered my mod podge anxiety! I've always said crafting is my therapy haha. Hope ya'll enjoy this one! :)