Monday Made It - DIY Map Coasters

Oh, it's been so long since I've linked up anything decent! I can't wait until I have some time to create again this summer.

Today's Monday Made It is DIY map coasters. I got the idea from this pin:

I decided to make these coasters as Father's Day gifts. Instead of one city chopped up into four coasters, I was thinking of making a coaster per city where they had traveled or lived.

First, I headed to {this site} to see if I could score free paper maps. Turns out, I should have thought of this idea earlier as many of the state tourism sites took a few weeks to get something sent through the mail. Ahh, snail mail. How I've missed you! However, a quick post on FB gave me more maps for the surrounding states than I could ever hope to use.

While I was waiting for those, I made a trip to Lowe's for some 4" tiles and bumper pads. I decided to go with tumbled marble instead of the shiny smooth tiles so it had more of a manly, natural look. I had to dig into several boxes to swap enough decent tiles.

Once maps started arriving, I decided on four locations for each father that had some sort of significance to them. I cut out 4" squares for each location.

After wiping down the tiles to get rid of the dust and chalkiness, I Mod Podged the maps onto the tiles.

After that dried, I sanded the edges of the maps to give them that rough look. I imagine this step would be optional. If you are going to leave a clean edge, then you're going to want to cut your maps slightly smaller than a 4" square. The left coaster in the picture below is post-sanding, and the right is before. Obviously, I did this step outside on my deck.

I stuck a bumper pad on each corner of each coaster at this point because I knew that I wanted to add a coat of Mod Podge to the top and sides, and the bumpers would raise them up a bit. I opted for the clear ones instead of the felt ones. I thought that these would hold up better.

Then I applied said coat of Mod Podge to the top and sides.

At this point, I didn't know if they were done or not, so I test drove one to see how it did. Would it seal out condensation? Would all of these be ruined on the first use? So I loaded up a glass of ice and Crystal Light, and put one to the test. And it left a ring. Boo. But then the ring dried. Yay! So then I put on some OUTDOOR Mod Podge and gave that a whirl. I figured if you put it on stuff that gets rained on, maybe it would work for condensation. Tried with a glass again, and I guess it's important to read the directions and let it dry 72 hours before using. So I peeled off that layer, and put two more coats on. Hopefully that will do the trick!

I am also linking with TTT for their Monday Meet Me.

Here is a list of three things for which I'm thankful. I think they're self-explanatory :)