How to Make Alcohol Ink Tile Coasters - Simple Process Art Activity

Alcohol ink isn’t the cheapest process art material but you can create some stunning results with it. As well as these beautiful alcohol ink coasters, you can also create these Christmas tree baubles which make great gifts for teachers, plus I have a few other projects planned with them that I’ll be sharing soon. The process is quite simple so it can be done by quite young children but you might be unwilling to risk them spilling it if they are very young.

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What you Need to Make Alcohol Ink Tile Coasters

Alcohol Inks – We have 4 colours which is enough to create good results, we bought them in a set which is better value*
White Tiles – If you want them to be coasters you’ll need to get small tiles, we bought ours in B&Q

Optional

Cork Backing* – These make the tiles more like real coasters
Compressed air – compressed air* can be used to spread the alcohol ink creating interesting patterns on the tiles, it’s also handy for cleaning keyboards!
An Alcohol ink applicator – You can create a different effect with these (find out how to make your own)
Varnish – If you leave them unvarnished the colours will eventually wear away, we used polyurethane top coat spray*

Materials needed to make alcohol ink tile coasters

Creating your Alcohol Ink Tile Coasters

Alcohol inks dry very quickly so speed is important. Choose your colours (two or three combined creates a good result) and put a few drops of each colour onto your coaster. Then you can either spread the ink by spraying it with the compressed air or just tilting the tile to spread it. Even if you just leave the drops to sit they will spread. You can then add more drops where you need them to cover the white areas.

Using compressed air to spread the alcohol ink on the tile

Boy Child created my favourite results with this project. He added lots of the same colour ink to a tile and then used the compressed air to spread it around so he ended up with areas where the colour was dark and areas where it was light. Girl child left some white space on hers which also worked well.

Using lots of the same colour ink on a tile and using the compressed air to create thinner and thicker areas of ink

Turning the Tiles into Coasters

You may need to trim your cork backings before you out them on, which you can do with regular scissors. Once they are the right size, just peel off the backing and stick them on.

Cutting the cork backings to size — You may need to cut the cork backs to size

A spray varnish is best for these alcohol ink coasters because if you brush something on you risk ruining the pattern you’ve created. Make sure you spray them outside because of the fumes and follow the instructions on the tin.

Spraying the coasters with polyurethane spray top coat

I absolutely love how vibrant the colours look on our completed alcohol ink tile coasters, we plan to keep some and give some away as gifts. If you don’t want to spend out on alcohol inks you could have a go at our sharpie coasters which is similar result but using cheaper materials.