I was debating what to give the teachers in my life for Christmas and quicker than I could have ever gotten in the car and driven to Target, I made a set of four tile coasters! I LOVE how they turned out and my dilemma is solved!

I brayered Creamy Caramel onto my Flannel Plaid background stamp and then pressed the tile into the stamp for a wonderful warm, Tuscan-looking background. Then, I took the base stamp of the lilac flower from the SU set called Blossoms Abound and stamped it in Brocade Blue. Over the top, I stamped the flower accents with Elegant Eggplant. The stems are stamped with Always Artichoke and the leaves are stamped with Certainly Celery. I used just regular old dye ink that comes with the Stampin’Up Classic Ink pads. Then I followed it up by spraying on a matte acrylic finish. However, I have found in the past, that color can bleed through the matte finish, so my second light coat was a glossy acrylic finish – nothing seeps through that! But, because I like the matte look better, I went back and with my third coast of finish, I used the matte again. The reason I start with the matte and not with the glossy is that sometimes the colors run a bit if I use glossy first. For some reason, I have a hard time with the getting the glossy on evenly and lightly. It’s easier for me to go even and light with the matte finish starting out – that kind of sets the color so it’s ready for the next coat. Aren’t they wonderful??? I’m just a skippin’, I’m so happy with how they turned out!!

Below is a close-up of one of the tiles.