Martha Mondays is here again. This time, the scheduled Martha project was map coasters. If you made this project (or if you haven’t yet, post when you do), post a link to your blog or just leave a comment saying how it went for you.
For this project, I splurged and purchased a Martha Stewart craft knife. This project was very inexpensive I thought. I already had ModPodge and so in addition to the $10 craft knife, I just had to buy some round cork coasters, which were about $1.60.
I used a plastic cutting board to cut on and I printed my maps online. I had 
some trouble cutting the maps out. Martha says to use the knife to trace around the edge of the coaster. Mine didn’t come out perfectly even and in some places it was still attached to the paper, so I used scissors to cut it and trim it. They weren’t perfectly round. And once I even sliced away some of the cork! I am a menace with craft knife in hand.
Dude Martha assisted on this project. We painted ModPodge on the coaster, placed the map on top and smoothed it out. Then we applied more ModPodge and also did the edges. We left them to dry.
I was really pleased with my results. One coaster has a stray hair from the brush stuck on it, but that’s because I did not buy top of the line Martha brushes. You can’t really tell my maps were not cut out perfectly. The coasters bowed just a little bit. If I had thicker coasters, that would not have been an issue. I’m taking these coasters
to the family lake house (since I used a map of the lake) and I think they will be a fun thing to have there. This project was easy (if *I* can get good results, it must be easy) and fun. You could do lots of other things other than maps with this. Photos, patterned paper, print outs of famous paintings, all sorts of neat things.
How did this work for you? Did anyone use something other than maps? Can’t 
wait to see your results!!
I’m putting together a Martha Mondays blogroll that I will post. If you want to be on it, please let me know the name of the blog to list. Once I have the list, we’ll start going through it so everyone can have a turn picking the projects. Look for another post today with the next Martha Mondays project!
Martha and Me 
Looks like a nice easy project with enormous kid potential and many variations. May have to try this! It would be a really cute thematic hostess gift wouldn’t it? It would also be really cool with comics!
It’s great because you can personalize it to anything you want. Comics would be a neat idea for a family room that is kid-centered.
Your coasters turned out really cute. I did mine in more Fall colors. I want to be on the MM blogroll. The name is Megan’s Cookin and my blog address is http://meganscookin.blogspot.com
Yours look really great! Got you for the blogroll!
I did mine with a fishing theme. See my results here. http://sassysuppers.blogspot.com/2009/08/martha-mondays-map-coasters.html
I like these! Cutting out the cork would be hard I think.
I finally posted mine. They were all dry and ready to go and my camera battery died. So after work today I got it done. You can check it out.
http://aquasunday.blogspot.com
Everyone did such a nice job on theirs. It’s fun to see what they chose. I think I’d like to make some using fabric.
Yours are great! I love the tropical theme. Great job!
Everyone’s coasters look great! I never did get around to this project what with the kids starting school this week and all (yes, I have a bunch of other excuses I can use too).
School doesn’t start here until Sept 8 if you can believe it! So we still have a lot of summer left to go.
I finally got around to doing this project (but not to blogging about it). This is my kind of project because it was super easy. I used some really cute Amy Butler scrapbooking paper, and I’m going to use these in my office. I do not like using the craft knife though. I gave up and used scissors. That’s what happened the last time I tried to use the craft knife. I think I did pretty well with the scissors though. My husband was impressed that they were actually circular. I think I’d like to make some as gifts.
I agree – I had a hard time with the craft knife. Yours sound cute. Thanks for sharing!
[…] Martha Mondays: Map Coasters « Martha and Me […]