Colorado Stone Coasters Craft Tutorial

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope your holidays were enjoyable and low stress!  I wanted to share a craft with you that is similar to that of others I have done, but different.

I have made coasters before, but some had rougher edges, which some people did not like and I made one in part of a Red Solo Cup, but I kept trying to figure out a better way.  Then!  I thought of it out of the blue!

I found out by trying other things that resin will not stick to silicone, which opened up a whole world of molds to me, but I still could not figure out something that would work for the coaster.  Then I remembered they have those egg shapers.  The egg shapers are what you put in the frying pan and drop the egg into, so it keeps a certain shape.  They are silicone and round and other shapes too!  Here’s the math I did to finally come up with my final solution:

silicone egg shaper + parchment paper + hot glue + resin = coaster with smooth edges

Eureka!

 You will need:

–  silicone egg shaper
–  hot glue
–  parchment paper
–  stuff to put into your coaster – in this case, I did stones I collected from Colorado
–  straw or lighter
–  resin – I use Easy Cast

Directions:

First off, there are a few things I should review:
1.  Hot glue does not permanently stick to parchment paper – it will peel off when cool
2.  Resin does not stick to parchment paper
3.  Hot glue does not permanently stick to silicone
4.  Resin does not permanently stick to silicone

1.  You are going to want to create a mold.  The egg shaper does not have a bottom, so we have to create a bottom for it, that will not permanently stick to the bottom of the coaster.  That is where the parchment paper comes in.  Place the egg shaper onto the parchment paper and run hot glue around the outside perimeter of the egg shaper.  Make sure you don’t miss any spots, or the resin will run out.  The hot glue creates a dam, preventing the resin from escaping.

2.  Allow it all to cool and mix your resin.  When your resin is ready, pour a thin layer in the mold.  This will insure that the bottoms of the rocks will be covered when I place them in.  Allow the resin to sit for a few minutes and if any bubbles come to the top, use a lighter to pop them (carefully and with adult supervision if needed) and if you feel uncomfortable using a lighter then use a drinking straw and blow on the bubbles and they should pop.

3.  Place your rocks into the mold and top off with the rest of the resin.  Make sure you put enough resin in to create a flat surface, especially if the items you are using are of different sizes.

4.  Allow to dry overnight.  Pull off the parchment paper and take it out of the mold.  Allow to fully cure and you have a beautiful coaster!

5.  You might have some thin areas where some of resin may have minimally seeped under your mold. Just use scissors to trim off any excess and an old nail file to clean it up if needed.

TIP:  I don’t know if you can see in the picture or not, but I did get very tiny bubbles in the coaster, despite being very vigilant about trying to remove them.  I assume that they are from the voids in the rocks and air just coming out of them.  I’m thinking next time, I might Mod Podge, or put some type of varnish on the rocks before hand to make sure they are fully sealed.  Remember if you do that, to make sure whatever you are sealing them with is completely dry, or you might get cloudy results.

Think of all the things you can put into a coaster!  I’m thinking I might need to make one with shells, sticks, glass, etc.

What would be really fun is if you make a coaster for every vacation you go on.  If you find little items, or shells or anything when you are on your trip, you can come home, put them in a coaster and it’s kind of like a memory box!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Mona