Terra Cotta Coasters

I saw this cute idea for making coasters out of the saucers you put under terra cotta pots. I had most of the supplies to make them already, and I had just bought a big jar of Outdoor Mod Podge to use on coasters (as it's more water proof). So I made these coasters to match our patio set, thinking that they would be handy on hot days.

You will need the following:
4-4 inch terra cotta saucers (I bought mine at Walmart)
a 12 inch sheet of scrapbook paper
pen or pencil
scissors
spray paint or craft paint in a coordinating color
Mod Podge (regular or outdoor) and a foam brush to apply
felt circles (if you don't have a sheet of the sticky kind, you'll also need fabric glue)
Optional: Acrylic Sealer if your Mod Podge is still tacky after drying for a few days


Start out by spray painting your saucers. I applied many coats as the terra cotta is porous and soaks up quite a bit of paint. You could paint these with craft paint, but you get a more even brush stroke free finish with the spray paint. If you have a nice dry day, spray painting is also faster since a coat will dry under the right circumstances in minutes.



After the paint has dried, find some circular item that is the right size to trace around to fit inside your saucers (or sink a thin piece of paper into the saucer to make a pattern). I found that a cardboard ribbon roll just happened to be the right size, so I traced around that on the back side of my paper. If you are worried about cutting the pattern on your paper in weird places, trace your circles on the front of the scrapbook paper instead (then just erase any pencil marks that survive the cutting process).


Carefully cut your circles out of the paper and then glue them to the saucers using a thin coat of Mod Podge. Like I mentioned above, I had just picked up some Outdoor Mod Podge at Michael's with a 40% off coupon with the specific purpose of using it to make more tile coasters, so I thought it would be perfect to try out on these coasters. A more water-resistant Mod Podge means I don't have to worry about whether to seal these with acrylic sealer or not--one step. I haven't tested this out with a summer's worth of perspiring drinks yet, but I'll keep you posted. 

[Update: Outdoor Mod Podge is more water resistant, but stays a bit tacky even after it's dried. You may want to spray your coasters with some clear acrylic sealer to help cut down on the tackiness (yes this works--seems a little counter intuitive but it does help). So much for the one step sealing.] 

So after the circles are securely glued to the saucers and have dried, then you can apply a coating of the Mod Podge as a sealer. I applied about 3 coats to make sure it was good and resistant, and so that the edges of the paper stayed down. Outdoor Mod Podge is thicker than regular Mod Podge and, therefore, not quite as easy to apply, but for this project, it worked great.


Once your coats of glue have dried, you can stick some felt to the bottom of the saucers so they don't scratch the tables or stick together when they are being stacked. I had some of the little cabinet door protector kind lying around, so I stuck them on the bottom. Gluing a circle of acrylic felt on the bottom with tacky glue or hot glue would work just as well, though.




I look forward to using these outside this summer. The higher edges will be great for corralling the slipperiest of drinks. 



The most expensive part of this project was the saucers. They cost about 75 cents a piece so the set costs about $4.00 to make after figuring in paint, paper, felt, etc... They turned out great for the money spent! Now to go find a cold beverage!


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