HAND STAMPED COASTERS

I made these coasters a little while back out of some cork that I had lying around. They were super easy to make so I thought I'd share the steps through photos. Hope you enjoy!

You'll need: 1. corkboard. I used cork mats that I found at ikea. 2. scissors 3. a marker 4. ink roller 5. stamp in a design you like. 6. circle template. I used the bottom of a planter 7. scrap paper 8. paint

Use your circle template to trace the shape of your coasters on to the cork mats. Cut them out with scissors. If you need to, use a piece of sandpaper to smooth the edges.

Place a dollop of your ink on to a scrap magazine or piece of paper. Roll it out with your roller (If you don't have one, using a paint brush to paint the white pigment on to the stamp will work too!). Cover the stamp with the paint and place on the table ink stamped side up. Take the blank cork coaster and place over top of the stamp. This way gives you better control of the placement of the image. Press firmly over the surface with your hands to get an even design coverage.

Do the same for the rest of the blank coasters and they should look something like this! I love how each one will be slightly different from the next - the beauty of handmade. I used a fabric pigment on these because I didn't have any other white paint in my drawers. When you use fabric paint you have to heat set it normally in order for it to stick to the surface it's applied to. So instead (because if I heat set it I would probably burn the cork) I applied a clear acrylic sealer to each afterwards. You shouldn't need to do this if you're using a simple white acrylic paint for the printing.

I really like how these turned out. They are simple and fun. I made a whole stack of them and ended up gifting the extras as a hostess gift. I took some leather string scrap I had to tie them together and added a note. Twine or colored yarn would look beautiful too!