Coasting With Style

Everyone and their brother seems to be a big fan of these uber preppy yet totally chic coasters from Iomoi. And lots of other stores are also doing the same ones as well. But with a set of 4 setting you back nearly $100, I do realize it’s perhaps, not in everyone’s budget. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a pretty close replica, does it? Nope, not at all. And that’s just what we’re going to do today.

Now, you can make these out of glass or even Plexiglas, but whichever one you chose, you will have to have them custom cut. This can be done at a glass shop or even your local home improvement store can custom cut either material for you to your shape and size as well. In terms of size, just remember to try to keep the rule of four. Four, Four inch Round or Four inch square coasters. These also make fabulous housewarming or hostess gifts when tied up with some coordinating grosgrain ribbon or fun fringy raffia.

Tools & Materials
-Wrapping paper
-Scissors
-4-inch by 4-inch squares or 4-inch diameter circles of plexiglas or glass
-Exacto knife and self healing board or cutting board to cut on
-Mod Podge sealant
-Sponge brush
-Cork with adhesive backing/shelf tiling (from The Container Store)
-Bone folder
-Ribbon

Getting Started
1. Cut out a piece of paper slightly larger than the glass square. You can use any type of wrapping paper, or nice looking craft or scrapbooking paper.
2. Apply Mod Podge solution with sponge brush lightly to one side of the glass—brushing from the center out.
3. Place your paper face down onto the glued side. If your paper has a specific design, make sure it’s centered on your glass. Smooth paper to glued side with bone folder—make sure to remove all air bubbles.
4. Let it sit until it’s completely dry. If you mess up on the glue or paper, don’t worry, just wipe off the glue and start over. No big deal!
5. Trim off excess paper with an exacto knife.
6. Peel off adhesive side to cork square, and attach to papered side of glass. Then, trim excess cork with a utility knife.
7. My advise, in order to make sure water doesn’t sneak into the small crevice and ruin the paper and design in between the glass and cork, is to spread either a very think bead of clear silicone around the edge of each coaster (thin and smooth so you can’t see it’s there but it will give a completely sealed edge), or use a very hot glue gun and do the exact same thing.

Idea Helper If you want to personalize and monogram your coaster before putting it all together, then I recommend picking up some decorative scrapbooking paper or other beautiful wrapping papers sold in sheets. Did you know you can buy Whitney English wrapping paper by the sheet? Talk about making a preppy project!

Anyhow, feed an 8 ½ x 11” sheet (obviously you will have to trim your sheet of wrapping paper) into your printer. Then you will just print up your monogram onto the decorative paper. Now you’ve got your monogram, pretty similar as they’ve done on the Iomoi coasters, on your decorative paper and you can start your decoupaging/assembly process.

Idea Helper If you are a gal who prefers that matchy-matchy decor or prefer for everything to be perfectly cordinated (as I do), then you can also use extra fabric from your drapes or pillows that you've used in your home to decoupage onto the coaster as well. However, if you like the idea of using fabric from your room but still want it monogrammed or personalized, then pick up some iron-on transfer paper you slip in your printer to print on, and then iron it onto your fabric before decoupaging onto the glass or plexiglas coaster surface. Or, for another method, pick up some carbon paper I'm always talking about to put your monogram on the fabric, then go over it with a fabric marker.

Idea Helper There’s also no reason you can’t use this same process to make photo coasters! Yes! Photo coasters! Use current pictures, go have copies made of old black and white family pictures, travel photo’s, or even postcards! Anything can be used to create your own personalized coaster look to match your style

Use them to match your décor, match your mood, your party theme, or custom make one for each of your party guests with their monogram’s. That way, they’ll not only know where they’ve put their glass down, but also have a lovely little parting gift so they'll leave coasting in style.