By:  Pam Melton

I have to thank one of our local free papers, The Nashville Scene, for this idea. They started with the concept of sponge painting cd’s and giving them as coasters. It really set the hamsters in my brain in motion. My very first thought was that a sweating glass on top of a painted cd is gonna do two things: pool water on top of the cd and leave a little ring the size of the interior hole of the cd on your table. (can’t help it, I always think of what it’s like to live with something)

So…I had this thought, what if you adhered the coaster to cork? It’s absorbent, non-slip, all those things one needs in a coaster. I also thought it would be pretty cool if instead of paint, you used pictures! My first try at the pic concept required spraying several layers of polyurethane on the printed cd label to protect the picture. Unfortunately, it really mottled the picture. Then I found self-adhesive laminating film at the office supply store. I must say, this seems to be much more promising. I guess I’ll find out as the recipients use them.

You’ll need:
Either photo paper (you’ll have to cut cd shapes) or cd labels (get ones that don’t have lines)
Spray glue
Cork (you can get these in either self-adhesive squares or non-adhesive rolls: either way to have to cut)
Either polyurethane or self-adhesive laminating film (have to cut this one too)
Scissors or craft knife (I’m actually diggin’ the scissors more so than the knife on the cork) 
 
 

What you need to do:
Print out a picture or collage of pictures onto the photo paper or cd label and apply to a cd.
 
Cut a cd sized circle out of the laminating film, apply it to the picture – or you could put laminating film on the whole sheet of photo paper, just depends if you’d rather cut twice or use more film (if you choose the second method, I’d suggest fitting as many pics as you can on one sheet).
 
Cut a piece of cork to size and attach the cd - here’s a trick, you have to spray glue onto the cork (unless you’re using self-adhesive) and you don’t wanna have fumes in the house, or worry about where any overspray is going. Take a toothpick and stick in the center of the underside of the cork circle and take out outside to spray it. You don’t get any on your fingers, no fumes and it only takes a minute. You can see what I did before the toothpick thing came to mind - hey, a box and some needle nosed pliers - it worked.
 
         

They’re kinda cute and folks like aunts, uncles, parents and whatnot love that sort of thing. As a grandma, I’d use ‘em. Until I find out how they wear with use, no rating yet.  The longest part of the project for me was picking out the pictures.  Once you have that done, you're looking at about 30 minutes to do a set of four.  You can use either useless cds/dvds or, I found a pack of 25 for $5.99.  The laminating film ran $19.98 for a 16 inch by 10 foot roll.  With the cost of a 24 by 48 inch roll of cork at $14.99, this project is going to run 7 bucks for a set of 4 coasters - assuming I don't run out of film or cork and I already had the cd labels and spray glue.

Oh..btw…the hamsters in my head are still rolling along – the next installment – Glitter!