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How to: Decoupage Wooden Coasters Using Modge-Podge

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Hope you all had a good weekend. It was a busy, crafty weekend for us as my three-year-old son and I got into action. I had a set of six wooden coasters that badly needed some revamping. In the past, I’ve tried painting them with acrylic colors but the results were not satisfactory. I was wondering how to give them a face lift when an idea struck me. I noticed the tiny bottle of Modge-Podge lying ignored on the craft supplies rack; I’d picked it up from staples a month ago for another project.

Wooden coaster
Wooden coaster

Modge-Podge, and dozens of Femina and other home décor magazines collected over the years was enough to get us rolling and get our hands dirty for the decoupage project. Over the next two hours Sunday afternoon, I flipped through Femina/Elle cutting out interesting words and colorful pictures. Once I had enough, we started sticking them onto the coasters. And, this is what we made –

Decoupaged Coaster
Decoupaged Coaster

It reads – “Life’s a journey. Some say you must never look back. Why not?”

Indulgence Coaster
Indulgence Coaster
Gossip is Good
Gossip is Good
To Hell with Rules Coaster
To Hell with Rules Coaster
Going Round in Circles Coaster
Going Round in Circles Coaster

No doubt, I could have done a better job with the pictures. We’re not done yet with the project. Two more layers of glue to be applied and one more coaster along with the holders waiting to be decoupaged. I couldn’t, however, resist sharing our creations.

Things you’ll need:

1. Mod-Podge (all craft supplies stores have this. Your easiest bet is Staples).

2. Waste Cloth

3. Brush to apply the glue

4. Collage paper/cutouts from magazines.

5. Acrylic Paint

Steps to decoupage:

Alright, now to the secret part of how to decoupage. It’s quite simple. The only talent one requires is to cut and paste. Literally.

1. Sand the surface that you want to decoupage.

2. Apply a coat of acrylic paint if the entire surface is not going to be decoupaged. A layer of paint makes it easy to get good results over tight rounded corners that are difficult to decoupage.

3. Let the paint dry.

4. Cut the paper into 2 inch pieces. You’ll need smaller pieces for corners. The paper can be big for flat surfaces. Like the ones above use one big piece for the flat surface and smaller than 0.5 inch pieces for the corners.

5. Apply Modge-Podge on the coaster and on the paper. Stick the paper on the wooden coaster. Ensure there are no wrinkles. Flatten it out as much as you can. Repeat it with every piece until you’ve covered the entire surface.

6. Let it dry. Apply 4-5 layers of the Modge-Podge over the paper until you get the desired, blended finish.Let it dry for 20-30 mins for every layer.

7. Sand the surface for a smooth finish.

8. You can have as many layers of paper pieces as you want.

It took me about 2 hours from scratch to finish for the 5 coasters. Don’t you think interesting quotes, theme on the coasters can be a great conversation starter?

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10 Comments

  1. Am intensely jealous of people who can do arts/crafts so well :) I suck at it. I love this idea, I have old wooden coasters at home too.. Lets see if I can muster up the courage to do them up.

  2. heyy awesomee work
    any clue if mod podge is availiable in india

  3. laksh

    Hi Garima,

    Yes, you can get it at Staples.

  4. Lovely blog, and a wonderful post. thrilled to find your blog.

  5. Hi, I was searching for some home improvement ideas on Google and landed here.. and loved it! I want to know more about this art, I had been to hobby ideas in Mumbai, and got confused about the type of Modge-Podge required for wooden surfaces? Should I sand the surface once the coasters dry?

  6. Hi. I tried using Mod Podge on wooden coasters but I ended up with coasters sticking to each other even after weeks of drying. Did you put anything on your coasters to remove its stickiness? Thanks

  7. laksh

    Hi Heisl: No, I didn’t put anything else, just the Mod Podge and it dried within a few hours.

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