Photo Coaster tiles (what the Pink Girls made for their Daddies for Father's Day)

Time is running out! Father's Day is next Sunday and I am off to Chicago-land this week (a sister hospital is changing to a new EMR and I am a Super User for the system so I will be there to help out with the GoLive) so I can not work with the Pink Girls with crafting on Wednesday after church. So I hurriedly revived this old craft for them, took pictures of them this am, and had them write their comments this pm at church (One Pink Girl is missing - if you do not come to Sunday School = you do not craft with Nelda. Moral of the story: do not skip Sunday School!) I will actually be doing most of the crafting this time around because of my trip out-of-town.

I picked up these tiles previously on clearance at Lowes . I have found (like another blogger stated) that Lowes have the best selection of tiles and the lowest prices - at least for what I am looking for. I checked both Menard's and Home Depot as well. These gold tiles were on clearance for 0.10 each, they normally run about 0.34 each - still a cheap project. I liked the beige ones best but it was too hard to pass up on the clearance so that is what I used for this project.  (and the gold matched the background better as well). I really like the edging on these tiles, I think it is uber cool looking!  Like we chiseled it out of stone or something just for the daddies.

Here are the scu numbers in case that helps you. I am not sure that the gold ones are still available though.

Take your pictures and print them out using whatever program you have. I used PSE and cropped them to 4" x 4" then printed on regular thin printer paper. Let them dry until the paper will tear well. Tear, burn or cut around the edges just a bit smaller than the size of the tile itself - whatever floats your boat. I tore. It is sometimes hard to tear well - but that is part of the charm so just make it look good to you. The person here did some cutting and inking.

Put glue on the back (I did not use Mod Podge but you could). I found that a thin layer worked best for me but give it a try and see what works best for you. Too much glue made my paper wavy to I tried to be a bit stingy with it.  Apply photo to tile, centering as you desire.

WAIT UNTIL IT DRIES COMPLETELY.

Otherwise the next step will not go well. Ask me how I know.

Have your Pink Girl use a PERMANENT marker to add a sentiment for her daddy. Mistakes, misspelling  and all, he will love it. And as you can see here individuality is not a desired trait for this group! They are a clique of their own and dare not break form from each other! So a bit of copying is OK, just make sure it something from their heart. And they have varying degrees of legibility as well - the best cursive writer here is actually the next to the youngest. And the only one not home-schooled. (I am not against home-schooling per se but I'm just saying that there may be some positives about schooling in a structured environment.)

And BTW, I did not pose them for the pictures above, they posed themselves. And they were against the same background, same lighting, photos taken within minutes of each other and yet the background looks completely different in each photo, what's with that?

Let the marker dry well. Now add some felt pads (I got the small dark brown ones at the Dollar tree and the larger ones at Walmart) to the corners.

The adhesive is not perfect so you might want to add a touch of tacky glue or hot glue to secure the felt well. Ask me how I know.

Now spray the front with a clear adhesive - this sets the printer ink so that it does not smear. When dry, coat with either more spray adhesive or a brush-on sealer (you could use Mod Podge, I will use Triple Thick). I don't have pictures of this because I have not done it yet!  I always do 2 coats of Triple Thick and I like to let it dry a week before use. It will be dry on the surface but maybe not all the way through so give it some time. You are then ready to wrap and gift!

Of course, now my project will not fit in the bag that I had already designed for them (I was considering photo buttons and that bag was a perfect size for them). So now we need a new wrapping solution!