We love being surrounded by beach vibes, and these DIY coasters are a sweet way to feel the beach love in your home even when you don’t have sand in your toes!
They make for a fun craft project for Valentine’s Day (or Galentine’s Day…or anytime of year of course), and make a great coastal home decor gift too, no beach house required.
Why not make it a group adventure and enjoy crafting together as a family, with friends, or kids?
Oh, and we especially love how the Live, Love, Laugh, and Leap sentiments pretty much sum up the Living Porpoisefully lifestyle too! 😄
We hope you find them to be happy, uplifting reminders in your day as we do. 💙
You’ll need:
- set of coasters (we used wood ones, but you can use slate, ceramic, etc.)
- heart stencil printable
- scissors
- pencil
- masking-type tape
- letter stencils (optional – you could write/paint the words instead)
- white, aqua, and gray paint (or any colors you want!)
- we used DecoArt white chalky (but any kind will do), Seaside Villa chalky from FolkArt, and Steel Gray satin from Americana
- paint brush(es) – we used a bristle-y brush and a thinner one for outlining (see photo)
- foam pouncer (stick with foam on the end) – if you don’t have one, no biggie, just use a paint brush
- paper towels
- small paper plate or other surface to put paint on (like a recycled lid)
- creme wax or other sealer like Mod Podge
Let the fun begin!
1. Print out our free heart stencil printable and cut out a heart. (There are 4 per page – you may be able to reuse one heart for all 4 coasters, but if you’re doing coasters as a group activity, it’ll help to have several heart stencils.)
Put some masking-type tape loops on the heart stencil so that it’s double-sided, and stick the heart on the coaster:
2. With a DRY brush, put a small amount of white paint on the brush, wiping off excess on the paper towel. (We’re doing the “dry brush technique” which is basically painting it imperfectly, yay! It will help create texture and a distressed rustic look.)
Then, lightly and gently paint the surface of the coaster around the stencil so that patches of the wood show through.
Gently peel off the heart stencil:
3. For the other heart “look”, trace the heart stencil onto the coaster and then do the same dry brushing to fill in the heart. We used a smaller brush to outline the heart too:
4. When the paint is dry, place the letters onto the coasters.
Then, use the pouncer (or paint brush) to apply a small amount of gray paint over the letters:
You may have to remove or move the stencils if they overlap (ex: we peeled up the “L” to get the complete “o” in the above photo).
Rinse & dry the stencils before applying them to another coaster.
Repeat applying letters & painting until all coasters are finished (we did “live”, “laugh”, “love”, and “leap”).
5. Once the coasters have dried, apply a sealer (we used a creme wax) over the top so that they don’t get damaged by water (follow the directions on the package).
What’s really fun about this craft is that you can make it in such a variety of ways – you could use slate or ceramic tiles, do a more opaque painting job (instead of the dry brushing), write the words instead of stenciling, or do all sorts of different colors.
So make it your own and have fun!!
And of course, don’t forget to Live, Love, Laugh, and Leap…or in other words, Live Porpoisefully! 💙
Disclaimer: All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.
Love this!!!!! As always thank you. So fun, so refreshing.
Yay!! 😄 So glad to hear this, thank you! 💗