Scrapbook Paper Poetry Coasters


Happy National Poetry Month! Making coasters with scrapbook paper and mod podge was one of my earliest projects on this blog. I liked them so much that I made a whole bunch more. Since I hadn't made any in awhile and I wanted to do a project that celebrated poetry month, I thought I'd try printing text on some patterned paper and use that to make coasters.


The hardest (and most time consuming) part of this project was picking the poetry lines I wanted to include. It was so hard to narrow it down. I wanted fairly classic poetry that was also uplifting. After browsing my library and lots of googling, I finally picked my poems. Then I set up a Word document to print them out. I have a large format printer, so I can set up a document that's 12 x 12 and stick the whole sheet of paper in my printer. If you don't, cut your paper down to 8 1/2 x 11. I used the rulers in Word to make sure my text was about 3 1/2 inches wide since I knew the tiles were just over 4 inches. After lots of hemming and hawing about text choices and spacing, I printed my poetry and then cut it into 4 x 4 inch squares with a paper cutter.


After my paper was cut out, I spread a layer of mod podge onto the tile with a foam brush. Then I carefully placed the paper onto the tile so that there was an even edge around the paper.


Then I smoothed the paper down to make sure it was sticking securely. I repeated this with all of my tiles and squares of paper.


After all of the papers were glued onto the tiles, I painted a thin coat of mod podge onto the tiles. It was such a thin layer, that by the time I was done painting the glue onto all 4 tiles, the first was nearly dry. I painted on a second thin coat and then set them aside to dry.



After they were dry, I cut squares of white felt for the bottoms of the tiles.


I used Tacky Glue to glue the felt onto the tiles. You could also use a hot glue gun.


Once all of the felt was glued on, the coasters were complete. The poems I selected lines from include: Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese," W. B. Yeats's "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," and Emily Dickinson's 314 ("Hope is the Thing with Feathers").


They turned out pretty subtle, but the concept totally works. I can't wait to make some with shorter quotes and larger fonts. Happy poetry month!




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