Spring look Coasters

To the left is what the top looks like. Below is the bottom with the cork on it.

Coasters are fairly cheap to make. They take a little bit of time but are not hard to do. You can buy inexpensive dominoes at many stores. Our Wal-Mart has them for $5 or $6. I used a double six set made of a cheap "stone" type of material. These instructions are for a type with a clear, smooth surface. In addition to the dominoes,you will need to have some thin cork. You can buy it in most lumber yards, stores like Lowes, Home Depot & some other stores. You need to choose the stamp set that you want to use to decorate the coasters. I used Fifth Avenue Floral (#113734). I chose the daisy in this set. You will also need a roll of Sticky Strip (#104294). Regular adhesive is not strong enough to hold the dominoes together. You will need StazOn Jet Black ink (#101406), and Classic ink colors of your choice. I used Mambo Melon, Pink Passion, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive. 1. First, you prepare you dominoes. Take 6 from the set and measure 4 2" pieces of Sticky Strip and 1 3" piece.

Place one strip of Sticky Strip on the edge of 2 dominoes. Peel the red backing off one and slide another domino up to it. Press firmly together.

Do that again with the next domino so that you have 3 dominos stuck together. Do that again with the other 3 dominoes. 2. You will then place the 3" strip of Sticky Strip on one end of one set of 3 dominoes. Remove the red strip and push the other set of 3 against it. Press firmly.

You should now have all six dominoes stuck together. 3. Flip this over so that you are on the dotted side (the side used when you play a game of dominoes.) Cut a piece of cork to measure 3 x 4." Place Sticky Strip on all 4 sides of cork.

4. Peel the red backing off the Sticky Strip that is on the cork. Place this on top of the dotted side. It should cover all of the dots. Now you are ready to decorate. 5. Before you begin stamping on your dominoes, it's a good idea to decide what type of pattern or design that you want on your coasters. You can stamp it on plain paper to decide and to use as a guide as you work. Using StazOn black ink, stamp the images/design that you want on the empty side of your dominoes. With my daisy from Fifth Avenue Floral, I used a masking technique as I stamped. If you don't know how to do a mask, check here and here for my tutorial on that technique.

Continue stamping with the StazOn until you have finished your design.

The stamp will not stamp the "in-between" places between the dominoes. 6. Next you will color your patterns. First, I used Old Olive and a sponge (#101610) to sponge ink around and on the between spaces of the design. To sponge, you will want to pick up color by rubbing it across your ink pad. Then rub it on the dominoes. 7. For the color on the flowers, I used a cotton swab. I dabbed the tip of the cotton swab onto the Daffodil Delight. Then I dabbed/rubbed the color onto the centers of my flowers. Next, I used Pink Passion. I dabbed it onto the cotton swab & then put it on my flowers. Finally, I used the Melon Mambo to shade and highlight the flowers. Pink Passion is a retired color but their are several other pinks that will work great for this project. 8. After you have the design colored the way you want it, spray the entire coaster top and sides with a clear acrylic spray paint or varnish. Give it several hours to dry and possibly overnight before you put your drinks on it.