{Tutorial} | Eggshell Coaster

A little while ago, my friend Adrianne over at Happy Hour Projects posted a tutorial for an awesome bracelet made with eggshells, dimensional glue, and alcohol ink. I immediately knew I wanted to do something like this because it looked SO cool! My original thought was to make some sort of bowl and do the same sort of deal. But then I realized my paper-on-tile coaster in my bedroom was getting kind of gross (night after night of glasses of un-touched ice water will do that I suppose. I just feel like I NEED that glass of water when I go to bed.... anyway, I digress). So I decided to make a coaster with some of the clear glass tiles I had gotten from Consumer Crafts.

So here's how I conquered the eggshell coaster. It's a tad bit different than what Adrianne did, but I was trying to use things I had on-hand so I didn't have to make a trip to the store.

 

You'll need the following things:
1. Eggshells
2. Clear Glass Tile
3. Piece of Cork
4. Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
5. Ink (I used India Ink because that's what I had, alcohol ink is much cheaper, and can be found at Consumer Crafts)
6. Toothpick
7. Hot Glue Gun

First, you want to make sure all of the membrane is off of the eggshell. Adrianne provides some helpful tips on this here.

Next, I put a decent amount of dimensional glaze on the bottom of the coaster and began arranging my shells. Because I was arranging my eggshells on the bottom of my coaster, it wasn't imperative that my eggshells lay neat and flat on the glass. However, if you want to do this so that the dimensional glaze and eggshells are your coaster top, you'll need more glaze and you'll want to make sure your eggshells lay flat.

Now this is where mine differs a bit from Adrianne's. Since I was working with India Ink rather than Alcohol Ink, I decided to mix my ink in with my eggshells and dimensional glaze because I wasn't sure how it would cover on dried glaze. Looking back, I would have mixed the ink in right after putting the glaze on, then add my eggshells, but I actually added the eggshells, then put a few drops of ink on and mixed.

I let this dry overnight. Then, I attached the piece of cork to the back with some hot glue. And there you have it! A pretty coaster!

Be sure to check out Adrianne's bracelet if you like this look!