Our older daughter lives in "The City by the Bay," which also happens to be my old hometown. She absolutely loves everything about San Francisco. On our last visit, I noticed she didn't have any coasters, and since she is "borrowing" her grandparents' antique furniture...let's just say, the coffee table will soon need a new coat of varnish. Until then, I decided to combine fun with functional, and use an old SF map to create coasters and a coordinating serving tray for her.
Here is the tray I started with, found at a thrift store for $3.
Someone had previously added handles onto a picture frame, so it saved me a step.
After deciding on the section of the map for the tray, I cut it to size to fit inside the frame and decoupaged it into place. Then I painted the handles sage green to match the green parks on the map. I sealed the entire tray with antique-colored decoupage to emphasize a vintage look.
Then I cut four 4" squares from another section of the map and decoupaged them onto stone tiles.
Not leaving well enough alone, I decoupaged a small box to neatly hold the four tile coasters when not being used.
For the photo op, I leaned the tray against my kitchen wall, coincidently right under a schematic of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Now I'm going to pop the tray and coaster set into the mail -- marked fragile, handle with care -- and surprise my daughter with a little handmade DIY.
You may find me partying here and
