Perfect Gift for Mothers Day (and Fathers Day!) Tutorial

As a teacher, Mother's Day and Father's Day are two times of the year that always sneak up and leave me panicking to come up with a cute, creative and cheap idea.  Two years ago, my class made the Sharpie mugs that were all over Pinterest and they turned out quite well.
Bonus:  we did the same for mothers and fathers so they had a 'matching' set (and I didn't have to come with a second idea)!

My last two years I was teaching kindergarten so I have the same kids for two years running.  Therefore, I had the idea to make coasters to go with the mugs.  You could easily keep this cycle going indefinitely!  To make life even easier, we made two at the same time - one for Mother's Day and one for Father's Day.  So much easier than gathering all the materials and making the mess twice AND it meant their coasters were much more likely to actually look good together!

Some chose to create a matching set, others made each different based on parents' favourite colours!

These coasters came out beautifully.  Not only are they pretty much failproof, but the students really enjoyed making them - not something I can say for the mugs. 

Materials:

Coasters - plain white 4x4 porcelain tiles from Home Depot cost 28 cents each!!

Permanent Markers - I actually found cheap ones worked better than Sharpies (less colourfast)

Rubbing Alcohol

Materials such as eye droppers, toothbrush, toothpicks etc... to spread the rubbing alcohol

Clear spray polyurethane or varnish to seal the markers.  Your choice if you want gloss or matte.

Process:

Before starting, write the student's name on the back of the tile, or have them do it themselves depending on age and ability.  It was a tricky surface to write on and you want this to be legible so I chose not to make this a teaching moment!  This is key - I forgot for the first couple and by the time they are dry you'll be lucky to remember which one belongs to which student!

Have students colour in the coasters one at a time.  This works best if the markers don't have much time to dry so encourage them to colour quickly.  Neatness is not a concern but rather the tile should be filled in with rough colour in any kind of pattern or colour blocking desired.  Some students tried creating designs (rainbows, pictures...) but the reality is that it will all swirl together soon anyway!  

The only 'rule': cover as much white as possible!

I discovered that certain colours, in my case the blues, seemed to dry quickly and resisted the marbling effect.  By going over those colours again at the end to make sure they were still wet made a big difference.

Give the students a small container of rubbing alcohol.  91% is recommended and we discovered why.  I could only find 70% and this really didn't do much to the colours.  I found some methyl acetate at 99% alcohol in Home Depot and found this too strong on its own, washing ALL the colour away instantly!  I watered it down slightly and had success, but if you can find 91% rubbing alcohol you will be making your life so much easier.

Use eye droppers to squeeze drops all over the tile and create a marbling effect.  I tried to encourage students to go slowly here, adding more little by little so as not to wash it out too quickly.  However, some students were heavy handed and this still created an amazing effect (lighter colours washed out quicker than darker).  Toothbrushes can be used to spray the liquid creating a mottled effect.  Other items such as toothpicks could be used to help swirl the liquid around as necessary/desired.  There really is no wrong way to do this.

If you are really unhappy with the results, use the rubbing alcohol to completely clean the tile and start over!

You can see the difference between the 'marbled' areas and the parts that still look coloured in.

When you can no longer see marker lines (or whenever the child decides), it is ready to be put carefully aside to dry.

The next day, lay out the tiles and spray with a clear polyurethane.  This will seal in the colour.  I did this part to keep students away from fumes but I let me nephew help me do his.  Make sure you are in a well-ventilated area and I would do 2 or 3 coats from different angles to be sure.  Again, leave for a day or two.

I used superglue and small squares of cork (cut of placemat) to fix to the bottom to prevent table scratches and wrote/had students label the bottom.

To package them, I created a template made from 4 circles with a diameter slightly larger that of the tile.  After placing them all together by closing the centre gap, I traced and made a simpler one piece template.

Each flap was folded up, students chose a sticker to place in the middle and hold it all together, then wrote on the front.

On this coaster, you can see the mottled effect created by spraying with a toothbrush.

Watch this video to see the process in action!

This was definitely a win-win project.  So much so I had my nephew create one for each family member, and I had to stop my DECE and EA from using all the tiles to 'practise' before the kids got to them!!

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Have you ever tried marble coasters?  What were your results?  What gifts do you make for Mother's Day and Father's Day?