Tile Tutorial

Happy Monday, everyone!  Cathy here with a new Design Diva Demo for you!  Before retiring from teaching, I used to make coasters out of unglazed tiles for my parent helper gifts at the end of the school year.  I often get asked at paper craft festivals how they are made, so I thought I would share my process in this tutorial.

Begin by gathering all of your materials.

Supplies:

Non-Stick Craft Sheet

4" x 4" Unglazed Tiles (purchased from building supply store)

Adirondack Alcohol Inks in a variety of colors

Adirondack Metallic Mixatives (Optional)

Alcohol Blending Solution

Felt Applicator Tool

Archival Inks

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps
Sharpie Markers (Black and White)

Paper Towels

Vinyl/Latex Gloves
Cork
Tacky Glue
Spray Varnish

Lightly sand your tiles and wipe off the fine dust with a damp paper towel or baby wipe.  Make sure the tiles are completely dry before beginning to apply the inks.

Be sure to put on those vinyl/latex gloves if you don't want inky fingers!  Choose three or four colors and give a little squirt of each into the felt on the applicator tool keeping each of the colors separated on the felt.  Then add a little squirt of metallic mixative to the middle of the felt. (Optional)  If you use the metallic mixative, you must remember to shake it well before using. 

Dab and swirl the colors onto the tile remembering to cover the sides as well.  No need to worry too much about what it looks like at this point…just be sure to cover the tile with color.

Now comes the fun part!  Squirt some Blending Solution on the felt applicator tool.  You can even squirt some right on the tile if you want.  The more blending solution you use the lighter the colors will be.

Continue dabbing and swirling with the Blending Solution until you get the look you like.

Here are several color combinations, although using exactly the same colors will yield entirely different results.

Allow the tiles to dry.  You can stop at this point, but we are going to add some stamped images to the tiles, so grab your Archival inks and choose the stamp sets you want to use.  

Generally I like using SNSS silhouette images, but the for the tile on the left, the coneflower from the Flower Blocks 3 set was used.  The middle was masked and the Typewriter Text Background was stamped in Jet Black Archival ink, then the coneflower was stamped.  Tender Thoughts and the new For My Father set was used for the tile on the right.  A black Sharpie pen works great for any touch ups that are needed.

Nature Silhouettes 2, Faith, and Serene Silhouettes stamp sets were used to make the tile on the left.  For the tile on the right, the Typewriter Text Background was stamped using Deep Purple Archival ink.  The flourishes from the Leafy Flourish

Background and More stamp set were then stamped using the Jet Black Archival ink.  White accents were added using a white Sharpie Paint Pen.

To make your coasters water proof, give the tiles several coats of clear glaze or acrylic varnish.  Allow the tiles to dry between each coat…about 1/2 hour.  (I applied 4 coats of Clear Glaze to mine.) Be careful to use the spray in a well ventilated room or outside.

Trim cork to fit the back of the tile using a craft knife.  Apply Tacky Glue to the back of each tile making sure to cover all the way to the edges. Stick the piece of cork to the back and place a lightweight object on top of the tile until the glue dries.

The tiles are now finished and ready to be used or given as gifts!

Here are the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps used for the tiles above:

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial!

Have a marvelous Monday!