Several of my family members have April birthdays, and I knew I wouldn't have time to make a cake for the joint birthday party we were having, so I brainstormed some craft projects I could give as gifts. I decided on decoupage coasters, inspired by these ones. Mine had a bit of a different flavor though, since I was making four sets, for four very different people.

The first set I tried was for my brother-in-law, who loves the show Arrested Development (who doesn't?!). I printed out the sequence of photos from Buster's encounter in the photo booth, though I forget which episode it's from. I cut the pictures out and glued each one onto a tile and painted over them with three coats of decoupage glue. Then I cut squares of felt and hot glued them to the backs of the tiles.

Simple! They looked pretty good, but I wanted to be sure that hot beverages and moisture wouldn't damage them, since they are coasters after all. I sprayed them with two coats of sealant to finish the job.

I wish I had taken a photo of the whole set of the Arrested Development coasters! I did remember to take photos of the Mario Brothers 3 set I made for my brother, as well as the Doctor Who set I made for my dad's wife.

I liked them all so much I wanted to make duplicates for myself! I will post more photos of the next sets as I finish them. Not only did these coasters work as personal gifts for anyone--print family photos on a set for Grandma, Monet paintings on a set for an art lover, etc.--they were also very inexpensive to make. The tiles cost 13 cents at Home Depot (or 16 cents at Lowe's), and felt is 33 cents a sheet from any craft store. I also tried adhesive felt, which was easier than hot glue and less messy. This would still only run you about a dollar per set of coasters. I already had the decoupage glue, but it runs about 7 dollars a bottle.

Have fun!