Today I did a DIY, what’s that I hear you saying, finally? yeah I know, I’ve been slow lately, but I did do another DIY today as well to post next week, so I think I can be let off! Im a HUGE fan of A Beautiful Mess  I have never been so inspired by something as much as Elsie and Emma’s amazing blog. They often do image transfers, which I did a lot of at college, and seeing it on their blog kicked me into doing my own transfer image DIY to share with you all. A lot of people do these on canvas’ but I wanted to do something a little different, and decided to make rustic tile coasters!
 You will need :- 
4 photo laser printouts, nothing fancy ( I printed some images from a trip to kilensea, as all the colours were similar so make a great set) 
mod podge, mine is matt but you can use glossy.
a sponge applicator or brush
4 tiles, I got mine from B&Q fro £1 each, if you dont want a rustic look for for a smoother tile
First cover your image in mod podge, don’t be too tight with the glue, a decent layer will work better but don’t go crazy!  Then place your tile onto the image, turn the tile and image over and rub the paper and smooth out any bubbles in the paper. Turn the tile and paper back over and leave to dry, I left mine over night to be sure but 4 hours should work.
Once it has dried, using a damp cloth, lightly wet the paper, don’t add too much, you can always add more if its not enough. Then starts rubbing the paper away.
Rub outwards to the edge of the tile, this means when you finally get to the edge, the excess paper off the tile should just come away, don’t pull any paper off.
Once you’ve rubbed the paper off, leave the tile to dry a few minutes and you may see a white fuzz on the tile, it’s just excess paper still on the tile. Using the damp cloth and rub the tile in a buffing motion to remove these tiny pieces. Let it dry, and repeat if necessary. 
Once the tile has dried, coat the tile in a thin layer of mod podge to seal the image, let dry and repeat a couple of times. This will mean the tile can be wiped clean, don’t ever submerge it in water.

I love using the rustic tiles because it means any errors in the rubbing just add to the effect! If you do go wrong, chances are you didn’t use enough glue if its just coming off or you didn’t let it dry enough, you can easily get the image off at this stage by washing and using the rough side of a sponge.
I’m going to tie this lot up and give them to my Gran, as she has always visited kilensea, and use to take my mum when she was little with my Grandad.
Let me know if you have a go, I’d love to see! 
Much Love
Natasha x
by Natasha Harrison
17 Comments