Pinterest Project For September

I don't know about you, but I get a lot of suggested pins on my Pinterest feed. They know that I like various crafts, so they send all kinds of crafty ideas my way. I kept seeing pins for coasters made of maps and I thought they were pretty cute. And practical. My son had just moved into a new apartment, which would become his and Steph's first apartment together. I decided to try some of these coasters for a cool housewarming gift for them. They have a lot of significant cities in their lives so I thought these would be perfect.

The instructions I used are no longer available on Pinterest, so I found a similar set of directions that you can use if you want to try these. Click HERE for the how-to's provided on the blog "Recycled Interiors".

I started with some 4X4 inch tiles that I found on Amazon. You can definitely find these at home improvement stores as well.

I made a template slightly smaller than the tile out of thin cardboard.

I didn't have an old atlas or any old maps to cut up, so I found a 2007 atlas on Ebay! Apparently people other than me find these useful. Using my template, I cut out squares of six different cities.

Next, each paper map was glued onto the tile with Mod Podge. I then coated each map with a layer of Mod Podge. Each one eventually got three coats of Mod Podge. I waited 24 hours between each coat because I read somewhere that this would prevent bubbling. I did have an issue with bubbling anyway - not too bad, but I was still slightly annoyed by this because I glued the paper on so carefully, smoothing out all bubbles. With each coat of Mod Podge however, some of the coasters would bubble up again. Luckily most of the bubbling dissipated as the Mod Podge dried.

When the Mod Podge was completely dry, I used a clear acrylic sealer spray to seal them. And this also caused some bubbling! Ack! Again, I waited 24 hours between each additional coat of sealer, ending up with three coats. If that sounds like overkill, I reasoned that I wanted these to be very durable.

I found some thin cork at Joann's and that worked perfectly for the backing. I used the template to cut out squares of cork and glued them on with craft glue. And here's how they looked when completed.

I liked creating these, and am happy with the result. When completely dry, the bubbling that occurred wasn't too bad. Only time will tell how they hold up, but I have a feeling that they'll look great for a long time. Matt and Steph liked them and that makes me glad.

I would recommend this project. Think about how many other kinds of paper you could use to make these - wrapping paper, origami paper, or scrapbook paper. Just think of the possibilities to craft some really unique coasters!

If you decide to make some of these, I'd like to see your finished product!