Left to right: Marie and Rowley Frick Pease (my Great-Grandparents), Dorothy and Alvin Abraham on their wedding day (my Grandparents), Emily (Herr) Abraham (my Great-Grandmother on my Grandfather’s side)
After posting my Beautiful You Ceramic Tile Coasters HERE, I started thinking back to some of my favorite projects using ceramic tiles that I’ve used in my crafting.
Probably my favorite is printing photos on tissue paper and then applying and sealing the tissue to a ceramic tile.
This is a blast from the past from 2007!
This is the coolest project ever! When I first read about this technique, I knew I had to try it. But to be honest, I was sure it was going to be one of those projects that sounded great but just wouldn’t work. I thought printing on tissue paper would be a disaster, jamming up the printer etc.
Well, I am very happy to announce it is easy and is one of those WOW! projects.
I’ve made several of these over the years as this is a great way to personalize a gift for family and friends. I have sealed and put “feet” on the bottom of some of them using felt so if they want to be used as coasters they can without scratching furniture.
Others, I have included trinket/plate holders so they can be displayed upright. The photo above are the tiles my Mom has displayed on her bookcase.
Instructions are below. Have fun going through your old photos, and let me know how your project turns out.
Print out photos onto tissue paper and glue/decoupage to ceramic tiles. Here’s what you need:
4×4 tiles (coasters) These can be any kind of tiles: tumbled marble, glazed etc
or 2×2 tiles (magnets)
mod podge
paint brush or sponge
plain white tissue paper
plain white copy paper
scotch tape
printer
clear sealer
felt feet for coasters or magnets for refrigerator magnets
photos
1. Take an original photo, scan into your computer. It can be a color photo or black and white photo. If it is a color photo, you might want to edit it to black and white or sepia tone using a photo editing program. The black and white and sepia photos have a nice aged, old-timey look when they are printed on the tissue paper. You can resize the photo to fit the size of the tile with a little photo editing.
2. Tape a piece of tissue paper to a piece of copy paper. I used a larger sized piece of tissue paper, folded the edges over and taped the two together on the back. Make sure the two pieces of paper are well taped together so you don’t jam your printer.
3. Insert tissue paper/copy paper into your printer.
4. Print photo.
5. Trim tissue away from the copy paper.
6. Cover the tile with a thin coat of Mod Podge.
7. Gently lay the tissue paper image on the tile. Starting in the middle and going out, lightly spread the tissue, adhering it the tile. Be very careful here. The tissue paper can tear very easily, so try not to manipulate it too much.
8. Carefully cover the entire image with Mod Podge. Set aside to completely dry.
9. To use the tile as a coaster, seal with an acrylic sealant and allow to dry. Add felt or cork feet using permanent adhesive.
10. For a magnet, seal with sealant and allow to dry. Add a magnet to the back of the tile.
This is a photo of my Mom and her brother, Alan. It is on a glazed tile, so it is smooth.
This photo is the 4 generations of women on my Mom’s side; Marie (Crawford) Pease (Great-Grandmother), Audrie (Abraham) Haskell (Mother), Dorothy (Pease) Abraham (Grandmother), and the baby is me! It is on a tumbled marble tile, so there are some pot marks on the tile which helps add interest.
