The Wonder that is Pinterest

During my time reading various blogs and seeing posts made by friends of mine on Facebook, I started seeing a lot of mentions about this website called Pinterest.  I visited the site once or twice to see what the big fuss was about, and at first I wasn't too terribly impressed.

This week I decided to give it a real chance after I saw an image of a DIY home decorating project that I really liked.  I requested an invite to the site, registered, and am now hooked!  The idea behind the site is it is an online pin board where you can "pin" ideas/inspiration/projects that you like, giving you a single, centralized location to link to such items all over the web for future use, and gain inspiration from others as you see what they post.

One of the first projects I found was for creating your own coasters.  The hubby and I have said for some time that we need to invest in some coasters, but have never really put forth the effort to look for some.  Perhaps it was because before we had two solid incomes, that was an expense we couldn't really justify.  Nevertheless, I have decided this is the first project/idea that I would like to tackle, and have since bought the essentials to complete it.

All you need are 4x4-inch tiles (you can pick these up for super cheap at a hardware store -- I nabbed them at Lowes for 10 cents each), mod podge (I got mine at Hobby Lobby for $4.18 after using a 40% off coupon), clear gloss spray paint, small felt pads (for the feet of the coasters), and of course the paper/images you want displayed on your coasters.

I have decided to create two different sets of 4.  The hubby and I are Georgia Bulldog fans and love our alma mater, so I found an image of our school logo (the Georgia G) and printed it out using different red & black color schemes.  My second design is going to be made using a piece of scrapbook paper I found that has black & white flourishes on it, which I just love the look of.  Whatever image(s) you choose for your coasters, just be sure to cut the paper down to 4x4-inch squares to fit onto the tiles.

The assembly process really is quite simple -- you adhere your paper to the tiles using thin coats of mod podge.  Once the paper has dried, you spray the tiles with clear gloss spray paint in order to seal the tiles.  Then once the paint has dried you simply attach the felt pads to the bottom of the coasters, and you're done!

My latest "pins" as of today have been cute ideas I've seen for when the day eventually comes that I am pregnant and we have a baby.  Those won't be used for a while still, but one of them did give me some inspiration for another little present I now want to make to give my husband when I see him this coming week for his graduation.