Handpainted Tile Trivets

a post by Jenni {aka Mom}

Our second 2011 holiday gift craft was hand-painted tile trivets. I saw this idea in an issue of Family Fun last year. You can read their how-to here.

Supplies we used:

• 6" square white tiles (which we were blessed with for free from a local independent flooring company)
• ceramic/glass paint
• clear glossy ceramic glaze
• misc stencils (some adhesive, some plain)
• painter's tape
• misc paint brushes/stencil brushes
• carbon paper
• plain white paper
• pens & pencils
• chopsticks
• Q-tips
• cup of water & paper towels
• 1" round felt pads
• hot glue gun

 

Make sure your acrylic paint is "For Glass and Ceramics"! It's usually in the same racks as the plain acrylic paint. 

 

Our [FREE!] tiles were already glazed. This project is definitely better with unglazed tiles, especially during the creation process. We found, though, that once they were complete and we patiently applied 3 - 4 coats of glaze allowing each to set for the full curing period and making sure to also glaze the unglazed edges, our trivets have held up to regular use on our table. No peeling so far!

As with the homemade etched drinking glasses, I divided the list of family members who'd receive trivets among the boys. I then gave the boys some basic instructions and let 'em loose:

Some of our designs were stenciled, some were transferred to the tile using carbon paper and then hand-painted, others were hand-painted directly.

We'd stencil or paint in one color and allow it to set for at least 12 hours before adding another color to the tile. We did learn that on the glazed tiles ANY adhesive placed on already dried and set paint which had not yet been glazed would remove that paint. We made this mistake with painter's tape, adhesive stencils, and vinyl transfer paper (we ended up using no vinyl at all for these). 

We liked the sharp edges that adhesive stencils gave, but they had to dry longer after being rinsed and once one layer was down we could no longer use them. We did a lot of layering with plain stencils with no adhesive, carefully pressing down the edges where we painted. Bo did most of his by doing one stenciled layer and free-handing accents and flourish later.

Most of the names that were added were done using carbon paper and then painting free-hand. We typed out the name on the computer, selected a font that we liked, adjusted the size to fit the trivet, and printed it out.

Then we used painters tape to secure the carbon paper and pattern to the tile, carefully avoiding any painted surfaces. We used a chopstick to firmly trace the pattern - and voila! Ready to paint:

Once all the tiles were painted, and had received 3 - 4 coats of glaze, we used the hot glue gun to attach the felt rounds to the undersides. The felt rounds are self-adhesive, but I knew from experience that the adhesive doesn't last very long, so I pulled out the glue gun for good measure. :-)

Here are some of our creations. The sky is the limit on what you can do with these. The idea is completely open to the whims of your creativity!

I love the practical nature of these homemade gifts for women. They are personal and creative, yet don't take up a lot of space, can easily be put away, and are something that a grandmother, mother, or other relative can proudly display and use on a daily basis. They make a great homemade gift for Mother's Day, housewarmings, and other occasions too.

The boys also made trivets for me, and I love having them on our table at dinnertime! What precious memories!