Last week my segment in Board Game Blender featured Damage Token Coasters, but instead of my usual How-To tutorial segment, I created a list of tips towards painting. After watching it on YouTube (cause I love seeing what the other contributors come up with! They’re all amazing at this!), I wanted to make a blog post on how I made the coasters.
Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the progress, but hopefully this can help you if you want to create your own Damage Token Coasters or Coasters based off one of your favorite tokens from a board game.
Supplies
- Acrylic Paint (White, Black, Yellow, Red, Blue, etc.)
- Paint brushes
- Water cup (To rinse paint off brushes)
- Varnish
- Corkboard Coasters (I got mine at Hobby Lobby…I think)
- Pencil
- Patience
Let’s Get Started
- Pick out your token. Mine was from the game that got me back into board games, Sentinels of the Multiverse. Check out the main coloring on the back of the coaster, the best way to layer the colors. For example, with the damage token, the white would be the first layer I would want to do, then the triangle shape outline, the center, and then the final details.
- Create the base layer. I would suggest using a white layer to start everything off. This is mainly because yellow paint is very translucent, or at least the type I use does. The white will help the paint look the color you want it to. (Note: If you’re nervous of messing up, practice a couple of times creating the design on a piece of paper.) Let the paint dry for about an hour between layers. I made about three coats for mine.
- Time to Draw. Using one of my glass cups I put it on the center of the coasters and drew a circle by tracing the bottom of my cup. Next I drew the triangle type shapes for the circle.
- Paint the Orange. I mixed the red and yellow paint until I got the perfect orange I wanted. Using a small paintbrush, I dabbed the orange very concentrated at the ends of the coasters and spaced the dabs further out. Then I did the opposite with some yellow paint, and let the orange and yellow mix on the coaster, and blend. (What I mean when I say dab, well it’s like when you draw a period at the end of the sentence, but do it lightly. It took me a while to master this. Really it’s applying pointillism to paint. At least that’s how I imagine it.)
- Color in the center. Simple enough. After picking my coloring, and filling the center with it, I used some white paint and mixed it on the coaster in a spiral to make the color kinda…fade.
- Don’t forget to let the paint dry between layers for about an hour!
- Draw the numbers. Next I drew the numbers in the center and then filled them in with a couple layers of white so that the yellow wouldn’t do it’s weird thing.
- Blend that Orange! Do the same process again that you did for the triangle-things for the numbers.
- Add some details. Using a small paintbrush and some black acrylic paint, I added the outline to hide all of my mistakes, and to make it have that little detail that really makes the token shine!
- Varnish! Apply a couple of coats of varnish to make the coaster waterproof. (You’re local craft store should have this. There are many types of varnish, so don’t be afraid to ask a customer service clerk for help.)
- Enjoy a nice glass of water, and use that coaster!
I can verify that I have been using these and the varnish does work on making sure the paint doesn’t come off the coaster and unto your beautiful glassware.
I’m sorry if this made you more confused on how I made the coasters then before. I don’t really know how to describe such things without being able to actually do it in front of people. Here’s a link to the segment to see some of this process sped up for the video. Hopefully this will help you create your own awesome creations!
Not going to lie, I want to make coasters like these for everything I love. It was really fun to make, though it took…two days, I think, to make them. Of course, I had a lot of free time between layers, but still this is a long project. It’s definitely one of the more advanced one I’ve done for Boards & Crafts.
Anyways, thank you guys for reading this all blog post! Hope y’all have a great week ahead of you!
ArtsyRobotz 