If you’re looking for a good craft for kids that they can give as gifts or decorate their own rooms with, making ceramic tile coasters and decorations is a good choice. There are a lot of ways to decorate tiles that are very kid-friendly, and the DIY craft ideas range from really easy to more complicated, so all ages can do these. Whether they’re painted, drawn-on, decoupaged, or collaged, DIY tile coasters are fun to make and can be given individually or in sets as a cute present.
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Craft materials that you’ll need.
These are the materials that I used to make these coasters.
- Ceramic tiles
(affiliate link) - Paper napkins or decoupage tissue paper
- Fabric
- Mod Podge (get water resistant to be safest) (affiliate link)
- Foam brushes (affiliate link)
- Stickers (affiliate link)
- Dried flowers (affiliate link)
- Sharpies (affiliate link)
- Washable markers (affiliate link)
- Contact paper or large stickers/adhesive wallpaper
- Spray sealer or polyurethane (affiliate link)
Decoupage with paper napkins.
Decoupaging with a paper napkin is really simple, and it’s something that young kids can do by themselves once they’re shown how to do it. You don’t need to use expensive napkins (the ones on this tile came from the Dollar Store), but you need to be a little patient with the drying time.
- Brush Mod Podge onto the tile, covering it completely edge-to-edge.
- Cut a piece of a paper napkin a little larger than the tile. and press it onto the glued tile surface.
- Press it onto the tile, making sure to attach it well on the edges.
- Let it dry completely, then trim the edges of the napkin exactly along the edge of the tile.
- Cover the surface with another layer of the Mod Podge, or use a waterproof sealer like a polyurethane if it’s going to be used for really wet glasses.
Tissue paper:
Click to see our tissue paper for decoupage and crafts on Zazzle, and check out what the sales and discounts that are being offered this week are:
Decoupage with fabric.
- Brush Mod Podge onto the tile, covering it completely edge-to-edge.
- Cut a piece of fabric a little larger than the tile. and press it onto the glued tile surface.
- Press it onto the tile, making sure to attach it well on the edges.
- Let it dry completely, then trim the edges of the fabric exactly along the edge of the tile.
- Cover the surface with another layer of the Mod Podge, or use a waterproof sealer like a polyurethane if it’s going to be used for really wet glasses.
Decoupage with dried flowers.
- Brush Mod Podge onto the tile, covering it completely edge-to-edge.
- Carefully place the flowers in a nice arrangement onto the tile, and press them firmly onto the glued tile surface. Use a scribe or something pointed to make sure that the petals are all sticking to the surface as well as you can.
- Let it dry completely, and check to see if any flowers have petals that didn’t attach well to the tile.
- Carefully cover the surface with another layer of the Mod Podge, or use a waterproof sealer like a polyurethane if it’s going to be used for really wet glasses.
- Dab the sealer onto the flowers, don’t brush them, for the first layer of sealer. Be careful not to damage the flower by dragging the brush across them too much.
- Let the sealer dry completely, then add more layers if you need to in order to really seal the surface.
Collaging with cut-out paper or photos.
Cutting out images from photos or magazines, then gluing them onto the tile, can end up being a really creative collage that can be used as a coaster or a room decoration. Let kids layer photos and drawings, or have them use images and draw other things on there to make it mixed media.
- Choose your images and place them on a tile to figure out what you’re going to design.
- Put the pieces onto the tile to arrange them and decide where they’re going to go.
- If you’re going to draw around the images, do the drawings now.
- If you’re just sticking things to the tile and there’s no drawing, add a layer of Mod Podge to the tile.
- If you drew on the tile, add the Mod Podge or glue to the back of the items you’re attaching so that you won’t mess up the drawing.
- Place your collaging items on the tile where you want them, and make sure that everything is attached well.
- Let the tile dry completely.
- Cover the surface with a layer of the Mod Podge, or use a waterproof sealer like a polyurethane if it’s going to be used for really wet glasses. If you used a specific thing to draw on the tile, make sure that the sealer you used won’t dissolve it. Water-based sealers will dissolve water-based markers, etc.
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Stickers to make collages.
Using stickers is a fast and easy way to create a collage-style scene. I used these vintage-style stickers to make a little nature-themed design, then covered it with a sealer. This could be used as a coaster or to put on a shelf or hang on a wall as a little decor item.
- Choose your stickers and place them on a tile to figure out what you’re going to design.
- Trim the edges of the stickers off if you want to (I did with these to remove the white edges.)
- Put the stickers onto the tile to arrange them and decide where they’re going to go.
- Remove the stickers from the backing paper and press the stickers onto the tile, making sure to attach them well.
- Cover the surface with a layer of the Mod Podge, or use a waterproof sealer like a polyurethane if it’s going to be used for really wet glasses.
Drawing on tiles with water-based ink.
Drawing on tiles with water-based washable markers is a good choice for really little kids, because you won’t have to deal with glue or anything like that. You can also combine drawings and stickers for little kids.
If you have them draw on the tiles with washable markers you’ll need to seal the drawing to make sure that it doesn’t smear or run. To do that, you should use a non-water-based sealer, like a spray sealer that isn’t washable. Don’t use Mod Podge to seal washable marker drawings unless you want to give them a smeary look because that can happen!
Customizable art aprons on Zazzle.
Click to see customizable aprons on Zazzle, and check to see what sales and discounts are being offered this week:
Drawing on tiles with Sharpies.
Drawing with Sharpies or other permanent markers is another option, and you can use water-based sealers for that. This is fun for older kids who aren’t going to write all over themselves.
Contact paper or adhesive wallpaper.
This is absolutely the simplest thing that you can do to decorate ceramic tiles, as long as they have a plastic-type surface. If they’re waterproof to begin with, all you have to do is cover the tiles with them then trim them to size. You don’t need to use a sealer because the surface will already be water-resistant, and you can remove the sticker and replace it later, or just cover it with another one.
Make sure that the surface of whatever sticky paper you’re using is vinyl, not regular paper, or it won’t be waterproof and it cam get stains or watermarks on it.
Watch me make a bunch of tile styles.
How to seal the tiles.
Depending on what the tiles are decorated with, you can use different materials to seal the design to prevent the ink from running or damaging the things you put on the tiles. This is something that adults should be helping younger kids with, but teenagers can handle this themselves as long as they know about the safety precautions they should be using with chemical sealers (Use them outside, wear an actual N95 mask or respirator, wear vinyl gloves, etc.)
3D materials.
If you use anything that has a depth to it, like beads, dried flowers, or layers of things that end up being bumpy, you might need to do several layers of a sealer to kind of even out the depth of the tile design. For the dried flowers, a few layers of a sealer that I brushed on created a smoother top as the sealer leveled itself in the cracks and crevices of the petals.
Water-based materials.
If you decorated the tiles with anything that will run or get ruined if it gets wet (like paper or water-based ink) you should use a non-water soluble sealer. I use water-based sealers on paper, but you have to be careful. You also have to keep the use of the final piece in mind.
If it’s supposed to be used as something to hang on the wall, a water-based sealer will be fine. Mod Podge or even white glue will work and will dry in a layer that will be transparent and protect the image on the tile.
If it’s going to be something that will come in contact with moisture, you’ll need a non-water-soluble sealer.
Non-water-based materials.
If it’s something that you’re going to use as a coaster for wet glasses, or if you’ll use it outside, it should be a non-water-soluble sealer, either to brush on or a spray, or resin.
I’ll add that if you’re going to use resin, do it outside or somewhere that has good ventilation (not just okay ventilation.) Resin puts out a lot of fumes, and it can cause you to become sensitized to specific chemicals, so make sure to respect the damage that it can do to you!
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