Painted Ceramic Tile Coasters

For Christmas, my mother gave me a set of markers to use on ceramics. Combined with a bunch of white ceramic tiles that I bought back in the spring as a possible craft project for Sydney's rainbow birthday party, the girls and I had a little ceramics painting party of our own:

 
I didn't know what to expect from the project, as I'd never used ceramics markers before and didn't recognize the name-brand of these particular markers, but they turned out to be pretty fabulous. The colors are really bright, and although the ink doesn't run or bleed, it seems to be liquid enough that it smooths out after it's drawn on and looks more like paint than marker:

After our paint party, I let the tiles dry overnight, then I baked them as recommnended in a 150 degree oven for 40 minutes. The result is a pretty nifty set of coasters that, although not particularly necessary on any of our battered furniture, adds just that much more ambience to our evening incense:

Decoupage on ceramic tiles is what I'm really curious about--guaranteed that it requires a much more sturdy varnish than mere heat-setting, but I'm pleased that I'll have these ceramics markers to add to my decoupage project, once I do figure out how to do it.