DIY Valentine’s Resin Coasters with Heart Confetti

Let’s make some fun resin drink coasters for your Valentine’s Day decor or for gifts. Your DIY Valentine’s resin coasters will be one-of-a-kind, and make a great activity to do with friends for a girls night in. (Not so much recommended for kids, though.)

The best time to go looking for Valentines sprinkles, confetti, candy, etc to put in your resin coasters is in January, before it all starts getting picked over.

I never spend too much on these resin fillers – I just get some cute stuff at Walmart or the Dollar Store. That part is cheap!

The resin itself is not so cheap, but if you really get into this as an art, you can sell your creations for a lot of money. (ie River Tables, fancy charcuterie boards, etc)

Anyway, back to Valentine’s Day!

For this project we need a few supplies:

Supplies for the Valentines Resin Coasters

1. Resin Coaster molds from Amazon
2. Resin Epoxy – I’ve used several kinds of resin and I prefer MAS Epoxy for this project.
3. Mica powder to color the resin, from Amazon
4. Heart Confetti from Walmart
5. Mixing Cups
6. Stir Sticks
7. Disposable gloves (several pairs!)
8. plastic drop-cloth to protect your floor and work table
9. Heat gun or torch
10. optional – silicone project mat
11. optional – cork coaster backing

Many of the above items are available in a silicone version which is great because the resin doesn’t stick to silicone once it’s cured, making the silicone tool reusable.

I have silicone stir sticks (in the picture below), silicone mixing cups, silicone project mat (the blue mat you see in the pics), and silicone coaster molds. But for this project I wanted to use up some extra stock of disposable cups and wood stir sticks.

1. Set Up Your Resin Project Workspace!

First thing you want to do is to set up your work area so it’s well-protected and so that everything is handy.

You don’t want to be running around looking for something when you have rubber gloves on and sticky resin is smudged on your gloves. You really have to be mindful of not getting resin smudges on anything important.

Cover your floor with a plastic drop cloth –

Use a drop-cloth thick enough that it won’t tear easily and let resin onto your floor. (We hope to not drop any resin on the floor, but even though I think I won’t, I usually drip at least one drop during every project.)

Cover your table or counter with drop cloth, then add some silicone project mats.

Always protect your area a little more than you think you’ll need!

Set up your supplies within arms reach

But give yourself plenty of room for the piece you’ll be making. Space things out a bit, if possible.

I like the space in front of me to be the project with the items I’ll use repeatedly, and then on a neighboring foldup table I’ll put my supplies that I use once. That way I can use them and then get them out of the way.

Have a loose plan

There’s room and time to experiment as you’re working, but I like to have a plan for the colors and sprinkles that I’ll be using.

That helps cut down on the amount of rummaging around I do with sticky resin hands. 🙂

2. Mix The Resin

Epoxy resin is two parts – part A and part B. You mix them together in specific ratio, and the chemical reaction between the two parts make it harden over several hours.

The resin I love working with the most is by MAS Epoxies because I love doing deeper pours and their resin allows me to do that in one pour, instead of several layers. So it saves me time and effort.

Check the mixing ratio for your brand of resin, and mix accordingly.

(It’s a different ratio for every brand and model)

I mix it together in my clear plastic cups with measurements printed on the side. You can also purchase pumps for your resin bottles that dispense the perfect ratio so you don’t have to measure yourself. It’s super handy and cuts down on mistakes which can ruin a project.

3. Add Colorant to Your Resin

For this project I added mica powder to my resin as a colorant. I used 6 different “candy” colors to make 6 different coasters… but all with the same sprinkles.

A little colorant powder goes a long way! I put in a tiny scoop as you can see here.

4. Put Some Sprinkles In Your Coaster Mold

Add some sprinkles to your mold before you put the resin in. The bottom of the mold will become the top of your project… at least that’s how I wanted it to be since that will be a smooth surface that doesn’t need sanding.

The part of your coaster that is currently in the bottom of the mold will be perfectly shiny and smooth (since it’s against the silicone mold), whereas the top surface will need some sanding around the edges.

5. Pour the Resin Into Your Coaster Mold

I poured a light layer of resin, to cover all the sprinkles.

I popped any bubbles with my heat gun (or you can use a torch).

Then I poured another layer to the final depth.

6. Add More Sprinkles If Desired

I added a few more sprinkles here.

Then I continued to pop rising bubbles with the heat gun every five minutes or so for about 20 minutes.

7. *Resin Tip*

Check the working time of your resin so you don’t “overwork” it. It will be listed in your instructions.

You don’t want to heat gun it once it starts to set up and harden.

8. Cover Your Work

I bought some dollar store tupperware and I use those to cover my projects so that dust doesn’t settle in and stick to my work. The covers will stay over your project overnight while it’s hardening. After that you can take them off.

It’s the worst when you come back to a project and find a hair or fiber embedded in your beautiful art!

Be careful about what clothes you’re wearing – nothing linty or with long fibers that could fall into your resin. It’s worth it to wipe your clothes down with a sticky roller before you start.

9. Now You Wait

This is the hard part! Waiting for your work to harden up so you can de-mold it. It’s pretty fun taking it out of your mold and seeing if it turned out how you imagined.

It’s almost never exactly what you had planned, but mostly they are good surprises and you’ll be happy with how it turned out.

10. Add the Finishing Touches to Your DIY Valentines Resin Coasters

To finish off your coasters you will probably need to sand off any rough edges – with several grits of sandpaper, until it’s back to shiny.

You can start with 100 grit and work your way up to 200, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, etc until it’s all shiny again. Try not to sand any areas that are already shiny or you’ll knock them down less sheen, and have to do more sanding!

And you can even add a cork backing to the coaster so it doesn’t slide around on your furniture.

11. Display or Give Away

What will you do with your new DIY Valentine’s Resin Coasters? Will you give them away to someone special or keep them for a nice dinner on Valentine’s Day?

I hope you had fun!

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Grab Your Valentine’s Printables Here (50+ Pages Free)

I made 50+ pages of Valentine’s Day Printables for you to download and print to decorate your home for Valentine’s Day. Lot’s of cute and fun phrases to pick from.

Grab your Valentines printables here, they’re FREE! And you get 50+ pages to choose from. 🙂

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