Coasting

Father's day is near, and pinterest put a little idea in the back of my head a while back. Add a rainy day with the kids at home, and creative energy abounded. At 8am, the two-year-old proclaimed 'I want to do a project!'. Well, I have just the thing for you! For this project, we used a few 4x4 tiles leftover from an old home project, some modge podge, tissue paper (or other cute paper scraps), some felt furniture sticker thingies, and polyurethane for a waterproof finish. Oh, and glitter. What sort of craft project doesn't get that much more fabulous with the addition of glitter?

The children put a layer of modge podge onto the clean, dry tiles, using a broad paintbrush. I evened it out a bit where needed.

Then we ripped bits and pieces off some tissue paper in coordinating colors. I always think the outcome is better if I don't offer the whole rainbow. This time we used blue, green, yellow, tan and light green. Sticking the pieces on the tile, we tried to fill the whole square evenly.

As we added tissue paper, we added more glue for each layer, so that all overlaps were tightly sealed. Smoothing it all down with the fingertips is fun and only a little messy.

At this point, I might have considered the project done, but my middle daughter insisted on adding flowers and glitter, of course. I cut those out of construction paper, and let the kids put on the glitter.
Then the idea of 'daddy really likes fish' came up, and voila, more motifs. My oldest also made peace doves, which aren't pictured here (she's old enough to trace and cut her own motifs at age 7).

When the modge podge has dried, a coat of polyurethane helps to make the result more water- and drink-proof. In the end, stick some of those felt furniture glider thingies on the corners of the tile. My favorites are PRAKTISK from Ikea, but it appears that I'm out! Quel horreur! (I must take the kids to lunch there asap....).

Altogether, this turned out to be a project that was fun for the wide age range (2 through 7) and gave pretty results for everyone. Don't you think this set of coasters will accompany a bottle of dad's favorite liquor just perfectly, just in time for Father's day this weekend?