Monogrammed Coasters

If you saw the tile coasters that I made here, well this is how I did it.

To make some monogrammed (personalized coasters), you will need 4 inch tiles (see below).  I got mine from Lowe's for about $0.33 each (the color is called Misty Taupe).  You will also need 1/4" ribbon in black or brown (to match your vinyl), spray sealant (Hobby Lobby - used 40% off coupon)...

...a Cricut machine will come in handy (but you could do it by hand - a little more time consuming and requires a little more skill - which I do not have - to cut it out with an exacto knife by hand)...

...E-6000 adhesive (the napkin is just to catch the drips in between uses)...

...something to place on the bottom of the coaster to keep it from scratching the furniture (I looked for felt circles - that go on the bottom of chair legs and couldn't find any, since I was in a hurry and saw these, I grabbed a bag).

First I placed the foam stickers on the back corners of the tile to keep from scratching the surface that I was working on.  (I chose 4 small squares in the same color.  You cannot see the foam stickers when it is flipped over.)

I then cleaned the tiles with window cleaner to remove any dust or fingerprints.  (Yes, that is an old sock that I use for my craft projects.  If the boys or hubby get a hole in the sock it goes in my rag pile instead of the trash can.)

I used my Cricut and brown vinyl to cut out letters (in this case the letter "D").  I cut out 4 in the size 3 1/2 inch.

To keep the letters from stretching when I peeled them off, first I removed the extra vinyl around the letters.  (If my Cricut blade was sharp enough, I might have been able to skip this step.)  NOTE:  Make sure you follow the directions that come with the vinyl for the Cricut - that will tell you about the pressure and blade depth that you should use.

This is what it looks like when I removed the vinyl from around the outside (and inside) of the letters.

Place one letter in the center of each tile.  I just eyeballed it, but you could measure it.  Make sure you press it on firmly and burnish it (bone folder might work for this - I just used the top of my fingernail).

Then I sprayed the tiles with the sealant.  It is hard to tell from the picture, but the "D" has not been sprayed yet and it is still matte, but the "S" has been sealed and is shiny.

I measure the ribbon (used brown ribbon to match the brown vinyl letter) to go around the tile with a little overlap and cut it.  (I use a wood burning tool with a wedge tip to cut all my ribbon b/c that will heat seal it to keep it from fraying.)

Then I put some E-6000 adhesive on one side and put the ribbon on top of the adhesive, pressing firmly.  Continue around all the sides...

Slightly overlapping on one side.

Here they all are completed.  From the top you cannot see the ribbon, but that adds a finished touch, if you are sitting on a couch with your coaster and drink on your coffee table, you would be able to see the ribbon then.  If you can find tiles with finished edges, you could skip the ribbon step, but the tiles that I found did not have finished edges.