Colorful Tile Coasters

September 30, 2020 Katie

We’re going to have some fun today!! We are going to light stuff on FIRE! I’m actually terrified of fire. I love candlelight, but I’m afraid of candles. Weird, I know. So we’re going to SAFELY light stuff on fire. I’m going to share two different techniques for making coasters. They are very similar; the difference is just how you color them. This is a great project for kids, as even young kids can manage everything except for handling the lighter. If you’d prefer to not use fire at all, you can still get some beautiful results. I’ll show you the little bit of everything we were able to do in just one day.

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Supplies

White tiles

Sharpies and/or alcohol inks

Isopropyl alcohol (at least 90%)

Pipette or straw

Foil-lined cookie sheet

Stick lighter

Metallic markers/paints for edges

Kamar varnish

Felt/cork

Optional:

Spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol

Both of these coaster projects use 4×4 square glossy white tiles. These are very inexpensive at a hardware store. I just bought some for 15 cents a piece at Lowes. If you prefer another shape (hexagons?), you can go with those instead. Whatever you like!

To get the pretty colors, we used two different media. The first one uses Sharpies! Oh how I love Sharpies. So many possibilities. I think I need to buy my own set, because although we have a ton of them in our house, my kids are also big fans, so they just end up all over the place. I’m really loving the vivid colors in this set.

The other method uses alcohol inks. I have an assortment of Ranger alcohol inks I bought in 3-packs from Michaels, but I dream of owning a set like this.

Isn’t it beautiful?

I also have my eye on this metallic set.

Whatever alcohol inks you have will work.

No matter which technique you use, you will need isopropyl alcohol. This is inexpensive and should be easy enough to find at a drug store or Target/Walmart/etc. At least when you’re not in the middle of a pandemic. I’ve read that you should get at least 90%, and that’s what I happen to have, but I’ve had a hard time finding it recently.

You’ll also need a candle lighter. I always keep these on hand for crafting purposes and, well, lighting candles. I usually pick them up at Target, but I’ve even bought them in bulk from Costco. For someone who doesn’t like fire, I do go through a lot of these.

I like a really polished look to my coasters, so I color the sides a metallic color. I originally wanted to use metallic sharpies, but then I found paint markers that I decided to use instead. An advantage of the markers that I hadn’t thought about ahead of time is that they do a great job of covering the bar code that’s on one side of each tile. Brushing on acrylic paint would do the same.

I love resin, but I have not used it for this project. It would definitely give you the most durable surface though. In my research for another project I learned about Kamar varnish, and that is what I use for my coasters or anything else with alcohol ink because it doesn’t interfere with the ink. It also dries fast, which is a nice bonus!

To protect your tables from the scratchy bottoms of your coasters, you’ll need something like felt or cork. If you prefer felt, you could cut down squares of felt to the size of your tiles and glue them on, or you could use little sticky-back felt “feet.” I found these sticky-back cork squares (and other shapes) on Amazon, and they are super easy to use.

When it comes to burning the tiles, I put them on a foil-lined cookie sheet. You definitely don’t want to light anything on fire other than the tile. Always work in an open area with plenty of room overhead. Depending on how much alcohol you use, you could end up with some pretty impressive flames. This is not a project you want to do on your counter underneath your cabinets, for example.

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Let’s get started!

Step 1

If you’re using Sharpies, cover the tile with color. This looks an awful lot like scribbling, and that is exactly why this is a great kid project.

I didn’t have the heart to mess with this one.

If you’re using alcohol ink instead, drop some ink all over the coaster. You don’t have to cover the entire thing because the isopropyl alcohol will spread it out some.

Step 2

Next drop some isopropyl alcohol onto the tile. You can use a pipette for this, a straw, or even just pour a little. It spreads out, so try not to flood the tile. **Note that the fire will follow the alcohol wherever it lands, so if any makes it onto the pan it’ll burn off of the foil as well.**

You’ll see the colors start to run and blend into each other.

Safety tip: Set the alcohol bottle(s) away from your cookie sheet. The kids had a tendency to put them a little closer to the fire zone than I was comfortable with.

Here are some before and after Sharpie shots:

Apparently I didn’t do so well with the before and after alcohol ink. The kids did the Sharpies, but I handled the alcohol inks, and I guess I was moving too quickly. Here are a bunch of the designs we got though:

Step 3

Alcohol dries fast, so moving quickly and VERY CAREFULLY, light the lighter and touch it to the tile until the fire catches. Stand back and watch it works its magic!

Optional: If you want a sort of speckled look to your coasters, spray a little alcohol from a spray bottle and then light the coaster on fire again. Make sure the bottle is set to a pretty limited spray or else you could end up lighting a whole lot of your foil on fire.

Wait for the tile to cool before you touch it. It shouldn’t take long, but be careful.

One nice thing about projects with alcohol is if you’re not happy with the results you’ve gotten, you can use more alcohol to clean them off and start over. When you’re happy with them, it’s time to finish them off!

Step 4

To give your tiles a clean look, paint or color the edges. Wait for them to dry. Quick note about paint markers if you use them: Make sure the paint is flowing well so you don’t have to press down as much. It’s easy to destroy the tip of your marker otherwise.