Making Coasters with Sharpies and Rubbing Alcohol

Here's my last post before my son and I leave on our roadtrip! I can't wait to tell you all about it! But for now, we're talking about alcohol coasters. My son and I signed up to do this fun craft at our local library. We showed up and had a blast!

First, we sat down at a table where there were white tiles laid out and there were buckets of Sharpies everywhere. We were told to color the tile however we wanted. Then, we should use q-tips and dip them into small cups that contained rubbing alcohol to blend what we colored.

Tip: If you want large splotches, load your q-tip with a lot of alcohol and make large drops. If you want tiny little dots, squeeze out some of the alcohol on your q-tip and lightly dot directly onto the coaster.

I decided to do an underwater scene.
In order to make this, I put all different shades of blue in the top 3/4 of the coaster and tan and browns on the bottom 1/4.
Then, I used the alcohol and made large splotches all over.
I decided to use the alcohol and a corner of a paper towel to rub off a spot to leave an empty space to put a fish in.
I made sure to let it sit for a minute to completely dry. The nice thing about alcohol though, is that it doesn't take very long to dry.
I looked up a couple fish on my phone and used those as inspiration for the fish I drew.
Finally, I added some seaweed and coral and a jellyfish to complete my design.

My son wasn't really feeling the alcohol look at first and decided he just wanted to make a Snorlax (he loves Pokemon!).
I looked up an easy 'how to draw' on my phone for him to follow and he drew the outline of the Snorlax.
Then, he colored his design in.
I convinced him it would look cool to add a background and then use the alcohol to add a dotted look. He reluctantly agreed.
So, he colored in some grass, the sky, and a sun.
Then, I helped him out by lightly dabbing a mildly damp (with alcohol) q-tip just in the background.

When we were both done, we handed our tiles over to a library employee, who sprayed our designs with a sealant. I wish I had looked closer to see exactly what they used. But alas, I didn't. They said it would be dry in about 15 minutes so we went into the library to look at some books. Then, when we came out, they were ready for us! Now, these coasters sit on our shared desk in our homeschool room. I think they're awesome. And the possibilities are seriously endless.

Tell me in the comments some other fun summer crafts we can tackle! I'm always looking for new ideas.