ESTABLISHED COASTERS

I've been so jazzed about this project and really excited to share it with you....but I had to wait until after it was gifted.

This Bride-to-Be is the daughter of a close friend of mine and I've had the pleasure of  helping her with several items for her upcoming June wedding.  Several print projects, such as: Save-the-Dates, Invitations, Thank You cards, rehearsal dinner invitations and wedding day programs.  I'm also helping her with wedding dress alterations and creating her veil.

She and her fiance' so fell in love with the monogram I created for them when I was creating their invitations, that I decided to use it for a couple of pieces in her bridal shower gift.   I went with a "beverage" theme, purchasing several pieces of  stemware from her registry:  margarita glasses, white wine glasses and martini glasses.  To go along with that, I decided to make coasters and a couple of bottle stoppers, one using their monogram (affectionately referred to as the "Royal G" by the Bride and Groom).

My first step was work in my Silhouette to create some "Established" designs using their wedding date and surname.  Frankly, I got so caught up in this mode that I ended up with eight different designs!  I decided to narrow it down to four that I thought were the very best, with the intent to create two coasters of each design for a total of eight finished coasters.

I purchased the 4 inch tiles at Home Depot.....unfortunately, both Lowe's and Home Depot only carry basic white and black in the 4 inch tiles; which frankly I think is the best size for coasters.  Keeping with their navy and ivory theme, I painted a perimeter border on the tile using navy craft paint.

When it comes to the print piece....here's one very critical piece of knowledge for you....because the entire piece is coated with Mod Podge, you MUST use a laser printer.  Ink jet prints will smear/bleed when the Mod Podge is applied.  So frustrating!   I tried all the advice on the internet on how you can successfully use a print from an ink jet (which is what I have at home), none of them worked and in fact, it wasted a lot of time.  So, I put my artwork on a flash drive and had them printed right down the street at Staples. Perfect!

I applied a good three coats of Mod Podge and then sealed it with a matte acrylic sealer as the final finishing touch.

I've made photo coasters using tiles, and these coasters are amazingly durable.   I add pre-cut cork squares to the bottoms to prevent table stratches, and it also makes for a very professional looking finish.




To finish off the "beverage theme", I decided to include two DIY bottle stoppers, one that I made from a door pull and one using their monogram to match the coasters.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The monogram stopper was made from two wooden pieces I found at Hobby Lobby.  I had my husband help with drilling the holes and gluing (he's the gluemeister....knows exactly which glues will work best on which projects!)


Once it was glued to the stopper, I painted it navy/ivory and then applied the " Royal G" to the top.  Again, ModPodge to finish/protect, followed by matte acrylic sealer and voila'!