DIY Coasters

To go with the tray I made last week, I decided to use the left over material to make coasters. There were only two things I had to buy for this project but they were both inexpensive and can be changed out for other options.

Materials

• Coaster Bases
• Tile
• Grout
• Tile Adhesive
• Grout Sealant
• Grouting Kit

The two items I had to buy were the coaster bases and the grout. Both can be substituted with other things if needed but they were both extremely cheap.

Much like the tray, I started with adhering the tile to the tile base in the same pattern. My goal was to make a matching set with all of the left over tile pieces I had. 

After waiting five to six hours to let the adhesive cure, I used grout like the last time. It's a bit messier this way and I had to check the edges to make sure they were fully grouted. Occasionally, there will be some spaces to fill.

Once it set for 24 hours, I added the sealant to the grout. I let it set for the amount of time it suggested  and now they are done. They matched the tray perfectly and I managed to make 6 of them. If there was another coaster base, I could have made another with the extra tiles I had.

Since I still had a lot of stuff left over, I made another tray. I decided to try something different and I used the cheaper things I had. The tray I bought from Micheal's and I got it 50% off so it only coast $3. The stuff I used for the base were these little glass pebbles I bought from dollar tree. It only needed 2 bags to fit the bottom of the tray.

I stained the tray with the left over stain I had from the first tray and used the grout I had left over from the coasters to make this. It's a cheaper alternative to the tray I made. This is going in my bathroom once I treat the wood. I really like how the pebbles reflect the bottom. I stained the bottom so it would look grayish on top. It looks pretty bland but it gives me an opportunity to mix and match different colors.

Air-Dry Clay Bowls

These air-dry clay bowls are ones I made about a month ago. I posted them on my Instagram around then, I just forgot to write a post on them. This is just a craft I did to see how I liked it. I didn't buy anything expensive to use for this project, just Crayola Air-Dry Clay in the color white. I bought it in the tub for really cheap. The girls and I played with the Terracotta colored clay and that was a disaster. It was so unbelievably messy.

It was simple to form with my hands and when it was starting to dry out on my hands, water easily softened the clay again. It took about two to three days to dry. It really depended on how thick it was. The little bowl on the left took longer than the one on the right.

When they finished drying I put a layer or two of paint on them. DecoArt's Elegant Finish Metallic Paint worked wonderfully on the bowls. It set evenly and isn't tacky. I used the color Rich Espresso. The inside of the bowl on the left was colored in acrylic paint. I watered it down just a little so it wouldn't have a weird rubbery texture that easily came off the bowl.

This was just a project that I wanted to try. I've never made bowls with air-dry clay before but it's something that I'm going to do again in the near future just as a little craft for myself and for some practice until I get better at handling this form of clay. I'm so used to oven-baked clay which isn't always as soft as air-dry clay/paper clay.