I was delighted to be sent a craft kit from the lovely folks at Cosy Craft Club to review, let me tell you all about what was in the kit and how I got on with it.

Cost Craft Club is a craft kit subscription service, you can subscribe month by month and get a surprise kit through your letterbox each month, or prepay for 3, 6 or 12 months. You can also purchase kits which have been part of their monthly subscription in the past, plus mini kits and much more. The kits are all from top makers and designers and the range of different crafts covered is immense. They ship worldwide too which is a bonus. A subscription package for 3,6 or 12 months would make the most fabulous gift for someone you know who loves to craft.

I was hoping to be able to try something new, that is my favourite thing about craft kits after all, and I was not disappointed.

I received the Terrazzo Coaster kit from Badger and Birch to make 2 terrazzo effect coasters from eco resin. I’ve never used any kind of resin before, so I came to this as a complete beginner. Exciting!

The kit had everything I needed to make the 2 coasters except for olive oil which is used at the end to seal them. I needed my own kitchen weighing scales too.

There is just one plastic mould in the kit so you make the coasters one at a time.

I weighed everything carefully and followed the instructions to the letter. I wanted to be sure my coasters would set properly.

The whole process was actually really simple, the instructions were clear and easy to follow. It said to work fairly quickly as the resin starts to set pretty soon, I felt like I had plenty of time to mix, pour into the mould and tap to remove air pockets and bubbles. The coaster seemed set after about 30 minutes but I was worried it wouldn’t be set all the way through I left mine overnight to be on the safe side. It was tricky to get out of the mould at first and I was a little paranoid I would break it, but I just kept easing it and eventually it just popped out. I made the second coaster and whilst that was setting I started the next step on my first coaster - the wet sanding.

Wet sanding of eco resin is a slightly strange feeling thing to do, but it buffs away some of the resin surface and the pretty terrazzo bits are revealed. It gets a bit gloopy but you just keep dipping it in water to wash the gloop away and it’s fine.

The final stage is to buff the coasters with a little olive oil. I thought this might make them feel a bit sticky but it didn’t at all.

You can see here how the sanding smooths everything off and makes the pieces of terrazzo show up nicely. This is the bottom of each coaster, one before and one after sanding.

And this is the same coaster, before and after sanding. What a difference, right?

The coasters turned out beautifully, I’m so pleased with them and I had such fun trying out a new craft. I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve never tried a craft that I didn’t like, which is both a blessing and a curse!

I don’t know anything about resin or eco resin and the benefits or drawbacks of the different kinds. All I can say is that this eco resin had no smell, was easy to use and the coasters turned out lovely.

I don’t think my coasters are perfect but that’s ok. After being SO careful to weight out the liquid and powder I didn’t weight the terrazzo bits so my coasters don’t make a very good set! I just eyeballed half and so my second coaster has way more bits in it, particularly more teeny tiny bits from the bottom of the bag. I should have been more careful about that. Also they do have a few tiny bubbles, despite my careful tapping and shaking of the mix before it set. It’s not too awful and probably only noticeable to me so I’m not going to worry, just an observation really. I’m going to use one on my desk and one by the bed so the fact they don’t match very well doesn’t matter at all!

They are quite thick as coasters go. The instructions does say you can make 4 thinner coasters but that you have to be careful turning them out. I just wasn’t brave enough to try!

So in conclusion, I had a lot of fun trying eco resin and making these 2 beautiful terrazzo effect coasters. A craft kit is still, in my opinion, THE best way to try a new craft so do check out the huge selection at Cosy Craft Club and see what takes your fancy. Thank you so much to the Cosy Craft Club for letting me try a lovely new craft.