Rainbow Tile Coasters

Well I have been busy making more tile coasters using a rainbow scrapbooking paper.

I did test my trivets with the boiling saucepan again, unfortunately with the same result. We used up all of our internet data and since I don't have patience with slow internet; more research will need to wait.

Anyway, back to the coasters... I also made these rainbow ones as a gift and decided to use the extra rainbow paper and green paper to make a few coasters for my Made It store.

Now I want to make myself some lovely blue coasters. Maybe. I still like my coiled magazine coasters. I'll have to take some photos of those to share with you (as well as find the tutorial I used).

I did figure out what size paper I need to make an origami box to fit the coasters into! 

I used a 30cm square piece of paper which created this box at 11cm. I think it is a good size as it gives me plenty of space for protective packaging. If you want a lid for your box, you can either start one box with a slightly smaller piece of paper or simply don't fold the edges in quite as far on one box.

For shipping I just want the bottom box to stop the tiles sliding around without using loads of tape.

I do have a couple more sets of tile coasters in mind for birthday presents, and hopefully more trivets! They really are a great craft, enjoyable to make and fun to personalise for gifts. I hope everyone I know is looking forward to coasters for their birthday...

Tutorial - Ladybug Magnets

After making my cute little bee magnets, I decided to make some lovely ladybug magnets for my fridge as well. The bees and ladybugs must have noticed as they have been taking care of my veggie garden for me!

Print your template through google docs here.

If you need more in depth instructions, please refer to my bee magnets tutorial.

Supplies:

• Printed template
• PVA glue (or your glue of choice)
• Felt - Black and Red
• Magnet (mine is 3.8cm x 2cm with an adhesive back)
• Googly eyes
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Chalk (or fabric marking pen)
• Hole Punch

1. Cut out all of your template pieces, your cardboard backing and four black spots using a hole punch. You will also need a pair of googly eyes.
2. Glue your cardboard backing to your body piece.
3. Glue the stripe to the centre top of the body.
4. Glue the head to body; lining it up against the stripe.
5. Glue on your spots - I chose to do 4.
6. Glue on your googly eyes (optional - waste time moving them into crazy positions)
7. After your glue is dry you can stick your magnet on the back and pop it on the fridge!

And now I have a ladybug family to add to my bee family. 

You can make your ladybug much simpler by not doing a stripe or antennae - like my little ladybug.

* Edited to add this image of the template so you can simply right click and save as...

Art Drawing - Heart

After getting frustrated at how long it was taking me to edit my latest blobby drawing, I started researching (yet again) for a better, quicker way. And finally I have found the way it gets done much nicer and quicker!

Yes it has still taken 2 days of editing - partly because I am not used to this fancy technique and partly because I am a perfectionist. The old way makes all the white lines the same width, the new way makes all the edges nice and smooth.

So far the smooth edges win over perfectly sized lines.

This new drawing is a heart since my husband thinks a big rectangle drawing looks silly on a t-shirt...

My drawings up until now have really been based on filling a whole A4 page so I think it looks a bit strange having a whole lot of blank space around the image. It isn't strange when I focus on creating these drawings for t-shirts, the problem comes when I think of how the drawing will look on my wall.

I guess I am just going to need to make borders to go around every drawing, specifically for my wall!

I will be adding this drawing to my CafePress store: http://www.cafepress.com.au/krydasu

Phonecard Magnets

After sharing my bee magnets with you, I thought I would share my favourite magnets with you.

All of these magnets are simply old phonecards. My dad used to work overseas and had to use phonecards to be able to contact us while he was away. Of course we loved seeing all the different pictures from the different countries he visited. I had a bag full of old phonecards, so rather than having them sit in a bag where they never get seen, I chose a few that would look cute as magnets!

I don’t use these magnets to hold anything on my fridge – they are purely there to look pretty!  If you happen to have a collection of old phonecards sitting around put some magnets on the back. My magnets are 3.8cm x 2cm and I only used 1 of them, I would suggest you use 3 if you want them to hold notes.

All of these phonecards are from Singapore. Now my dad has email and satellite phones to use while he is at work – luckily he still brings back different lollies and chocolates!

Tile Coasters

I made some tile coasters for my MIL’s birthday, as well as some bigger ones that I was planning to be trivets. (Unfortunately they are now called the non-trivets – I’ll explain at the end.)

There are so many tutorials for tile coasters out there, so there was no point adding another one. I’ll just share my experience with you and share the links for some tutorials I found:

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/03/30/diy-coasters/

http://www.hostessblog.com/2010/07/diy-tutorial-mod-podge-tile-coasters/

http://thecottagehome.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/tile-coaster-tutorial.html

http://midwesternmoms.com/2011/10/diy-mod-podge-tile-coaster-tutorial/

http://happytocreate.com/home-for-the-summer/craft-tutorial-how-to-make-tile-coasters/

I did both my 10cm x 10cm coasters and the 20cm x 20cm non-trivets the same way.

For the unfinished edges I used a sponge stenciling brush with white paint – it won’t be a gloss finish like the tile so I figured it would look nice as a textured finish.

I used scrapbooking cardstock cut into 9cm x 9cm pieces for the coasters and 19cm x 19cm for the non-trivets.

I used some watered down PVA to glue the paper to the tile – but did not use it on top of the paper.

To seal the paper and the painted tile edges I use Jo Sonja’s – Gloss Varnish – Polyurethane Water Based. I bought this at Bunnings in the craft section. I did 4 coats of this varnish as per the instructions to create an alcohol resistant finish.

When I am painting anything like these tiles which need the edges sealed as well, I sit the tile on top of something like a jar while painting. Afterwards I either leave it on top of the jar or something like a milk bottle lid to stop it sticking to anything. If it isn’t stable enough, I use a bit of Blu-Tack to hold it in place.

For the bottom of the coasters I just used sticky back felt feet that are normally used for furniture.

As for the whole trivet situation… I made a 20cm x 20cm tile and tested it. I boiled a saucepan of water and straight away sat it on the tile. It stuck to the tile in a couple of spots around the edge which bubbled a little, pulling up the paper when I pulled the saucepan off. It isn't that noticeable, but not what I wanted it to be doing. After this I did notice that my bottle of varnish says to cure for 2 weeks before use… so after 2 weeks I will of course be trying it again to see what happens!

I did another test by putting a mug on the tile and filling it up with boiling water. Which was perfectly fine, obviously it just can’t handle something coming off direct heat!

When my MIL opened her present she thought the non-trivets were placemats, something I never even thought of! I did think it would be handy for jugs or bottles of cold drinks or yummy bowls of ice cream.