Delusions of DIY: Passport Stamp Coasters

This post is all about living in the real world. I'm so not crafty.  Or handy.  But I've mentioned that before.  I still try and sometimes the results are adequate, sometimes the results are utter crap.  Like this project.

I picked up the wood circles at a random Ben Franklin I stopped in a few months ago (didn't realize they were even still around) with a coaster project in mind (gee, thanks pinterest).  I made copies of some of the more interesting/pretty passport stamps and visas in our passports onto vellum.  I was operating under the idea that I could Modge Podge the vellum to the wood the same way others have been doing with other papers to ceramic tiles.

Then I decided I didn't want the exposed wood on the sides/back of the coasters and that the vellum might look better on top of a wash of color.  So I used the Martha Stewart gold from Home Depot (decided not to use it on a previous project but had already opened it), I added some water, brushed it on and wiped it off.

 I liked the end result, but would water it down more if I did it again for less overall color.

Then I cut out the portions of the stamps I wanted to use on the coasters using the circles as a template.

(Yes, I did all this with a towel spread over my lap while sitting on the sofa watching TV.)

I applied the vellum with the Modge Podge and even though I thought I had it wrinkle free as it dried that was so not the case.  I tried smoothing the vellum down as it was drying but that just ended up blurring the images, maybe because it was vellum and not paper?  I added a top layer of Modge Podge as well hoping I could still salvage them but no luck.


The top left (visa for extended stay in Belgium) turned out the best, the two on the right side (entry/exit stamps for Russia with the Statue of Liberty in the background and entry/exit stamps along with Visas for Jordan) are just too blurry and wrinkled.

The three that I did with single cutouts from my photocopies had the most potential.  The one I tried to use more two separate pieces of vellum on wouldn't lay flat for anything.

If I were to try it again I would do an actual image transfer onto the wood instead of using the vellum.

So there you have it. Not a terrible way to spend an hour, I can laugh at myself and the end result.  I learned something from it (I think) but it was definitely a miss instead of a hit.  I can't be the only one with projects that totally fail??  At least I hope not......