Checkerboard Coasters Tutorial

I recently made these checkerboard coasters as a host gift for someone who enjoys board games. I thought they'd be fun to have out during a game night or just to liven up a dinner.

They didn't take too long to make, and it was exciting to see the materials come together. The hardest part was finding the patience for making all the squares.


Materials:

• Some underlying coaster material. I used PVC board from the art store. It's used for modeling projects. You could also use chipboard coasters or pre-made coasters but they need to be 4"x4" or able to be cut to that size for this project.
• Red and black paper
• Mod podge or some other kind of acrylic gel medium ( I used the Utrecht brand). You can choose between gloss or matte finish. I chose gloss.
• A brush for the mod podge application
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Spray fixative, available at all art stores. (I used Krylon).
  
• Utility knife (if you need to cut the coaster material to size)
• Cutting board (definitely not necessary, but I found it very helpful because it has a measured grid)

Step 1:


Grab your PVC board.

Step 2:

Cut the PVC board into 4"x4" squares with your utility knife (I made a set of 4 coasters but you can do more or fewer). I swear this is not very hard. In fact it was so easy, I forgot to take a picture at this stage. All you have to do is mark of a square with pencil, and simple keep pushing along the lines with the utility knife. It will take a few go-overs before it cuts clean, but it cuts really clean.

Step 3:

Cut 4"x4" squares out of the red paper and affix to the PVC squares with mod podge/acrylic gel medium. I actually gave myself a little extra room on the paper squares just to make sure they completely covered the coaster. It's easy to trim the edges once they are attached on.

I did a coat on the bottom of the red paper to make sure it was attached to the PVC, and then a top coat (this is the really important one), which makes the paper hard and water-resistant.

Step 4:

Cut out 1/2"x1/2" black squares. You will need 32 for each coaster (that's 128 for all 4 coasters). This was probably my least favorite part of the project. But the grid came in very handy for marking off the right sizes. (Sorry for the blurry image below).

Step 5:

Affix black squares onto coaster by putting mod podge on the back of the black squares. It helped me to look at a picture of a checkerboard to make sure that I got the pattern right (it's not that hard, but who wants to mess up at this point?)

Because cutting paper squares out is not quite an exact science, I had to be careful to check for size issues to make certain all the squares ended up fitting properly.

Don't worry about it looking exactly perfect--the homemade quality adds to the charm! Just make sure you can fit all your squares. On a couple of coasters, I ended up specially cutting out a couple of extra large or extra small squares to make up for tiny differences in square size.

Step 6:

Add mod podge over the top of all the coasters. Let them dry for an hour or two.

Step 7:

Take the coasters outside or to a well-ventilated area and spray lightly with fixative. Give them awhile to dry, and you're done!