With a swirl painted design, these DIY coasters are decorated with nail polish.

Crafts are so much fun! Whether I’m creating them with my three-year-old daughter, or making something on my own, I love seeing everyday items turn into pieces of art. When the crafts are a gift, they are even more special.

DIY Swirl Painted Coasters are a simple craft that my daughter and I made for Valentine’s Day. I know I’m posting this a little late – it’s March after all. But I was waiting for a few out-of-town grandparents to come home to get their gift. I couldn’t post about the DIY Swirl Painted Coasters before giving it to them. That would spoil the surprise of it all! And isn’t that one of the best parts of gift giving.

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When Valentine’s Day was approaching, I was trying to think of a fun project for me and my three-year-old daughter. I wanted to create something beautiful that we could give to her grandparents.

After seeing several nail polish painted items on Pinterest (like here, here, and here), I wanted to make our own version. Since you can never have too many coasters, we decided to create our own version. With a light pop of Valentine’s Day pink, DIY Swirl Painted Coasters can be enjoyed any day of the year.

Before I get into all the “how to” details, let’s talk gloves. I’m not talking fashion gloves, I’m talking about those latex (or similar) gloves. Without them, your fingers will be covered with nail polish. It won’t be pretty. It will be chunks of nail polish all over your fingers (and nails).

To give the titles a happy Valentine’s Day appearance, we chose three colours: pink, grey, and black. I wanted the coasters to have a romantic appearance without too much of a cotton candy look. DIY Swirl Painted Coasters aren’t just for Valentine’s Day after all.

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This is a pretty quick project, so you’ll want to have everything laid out before you begin. Grab a pitcher of warm water, plastic plates, tiles, nail polish, toothpicks, and paper towel. First, you’ll want to pour water into the plate. I used some leftover plastic plates from my daughter’s second birthday party. They’re about one inch deep, so I had some room to work with.

When the plate is filled with water, add the nail polish. Add a few drops of each colour and swirl them to create a design. You’ll want to work quickly because the polish can dry. Smoothly dip the tile into the polish. Press it into the water, so the polish covers the edges of the tile. This gives the tile a completely painted appearance.

My daughter loved adding the nail polish to the water and helping me swirl the colours together. She had so much fun seeing the colours combine. Even with the same three colours, each design was completely unique. When the design was perfect, I dipped the tiles into the polish.

You may notice some drops of water on the tiles in the picture above. Shake them off. Otherwise, it will leave drop marks on the tiles as they dry. Once the water drops fall off, let the coasters dry on a paper towel lined counter.

Between decorating each tile, you may find that the water becomes muddied with dried nail polish. If this happens, you can try pouring out the water and adding clean water. Or, you can use another plate with fresh water. I didn’t need to change the water often, but I found it easier to use a new toothpick, or a clean side of the toothpick, for each tile.

GIVE THE PERFECT GIFT

DIY Swirl Painted Coasters will be dry after about half an hour. But I let them dry for 24 hours before sealing them. Coasters can get a real beating from drippy drinks to wet glasses. A decorated coaster can look beautiful in the beginning, but with regular use, I was worried that the design would fade or peel away.

To seal the tiles, we used Krylon ColorMaster Clear/Transparent spray. We first used this spray for Polka Dot Fingerprint Flower Pot. After almost a year, the flower pots still look good as new, even with weekly watering.

You’ll want to use a spray sealer outside or in a well-ventilated area. Otherwise, the fumes can be quite intense. After applying Krylon ColorMaster Clear/Transparent spray, the DIY Swirl Painted Coasters have a wonderful light sheen. I just love how they turned out.

Since coasters are supposed to protect tabletops, we added felt pads to the bottom. Who wants coasters that can scratch your table, right? Being a kid who loves stickers, my three-year-old daughter had so much fun adding felt pads. Like stickers, she popped them onto each of the four corners of the coasters. The pads add some height to the coaster, making it easy for them to move around.

To make DIY Swirl Painted Coasters a little more sticker friendly, my daughter decided to make her own wrapping paper. Using two pieces of printer paper and some Valentine’s Day stickers, my daughter created one-of-a-kind wrapping paper. After all the stickers were added, I taped the pages together, creating a long piece of paper.

To give the wrapping paper a little punch of originality, my daughter added a little swirl of crayon around the stickers. In the picture below you can see a blurred hand, adding her own design touch.

When it was all done, our homemade gift was covered with some homemade wrapping paper. Both sets of grandparents couldn’t have been happier with their DIY Swirl Painted Coasters Valentine’s Day gift.