Homemade Christmas Presents – Make a Felt Coaster Set

Felt is a very child friendly, versatile material and is the perfect choice for making a cute little felt coaster set. The finished set makes a nice homemade Christmas present for grandparents or aunts who like to serve hot chocolate to their guests on cold winter days. This Christmas craft project is ideal for six to ten year old children that enjoy being creative and making some of their own design choices.

To make a felt coaster set, you will need:

• Two pieces of pink felt and two pieces of green felt. (Or pieces of felt in any two colors that look good together. Red and white or blue and white are great color choices for winter, too.)
• Felt glue or a hot glue gun. (Be careful to only buy glue that says it is non-toxic. This way, you’ll know it is safe for you to use when you are making your project and that it is safe for the person getting the coasters to use them with food and drinks.)
• Scissors.
• Black marker.
• Coffee can lid or other round item that measures about 5 inches across.
• Diecut machine and winter themed dies or a simple winter design of your own.
• Waxed paper.

Once you have all your supplies, you’ll need to think about your design. The coaster in the picture is a green mitten on a light pink background, but you can make all sorts of fun designs. A blue or purple bird on a white background, a white snowman on a black background, or a red stocking on a white background are a few fun ideas. You might want to try cutting the design you want to use out of scrap paper to see what it will look like when you cut it out of the felt so you don’t waste felt on a design you don’t end up using.

Next, take your coffee can lid or other round item and place it on the piece of felt you are going to use as the coaster. Make sure you put the lid as close to the edge of the felt as possible, so you have enough space to cut two 5 inch circles from the felt. Trace around the lid, move it to an empty spot and trace around it again. Repeat this step with your second piece of coaster felt. Then, carefully cut out the four circles.

When you have all your circles cut out, it is time to cut out the design shapes. If you are using a die cut machine, cut four felt squares that are the same size as the die you are using and run the felt through the machine. If you will be cutting the designs out yourself, carefully draw or trace the shape of the design onto the felt four times and cut it out.

Now, all you have to do is glue the designs onto the felt. Apply glue to the back of each design and place it with the glue side down onto a coaster. When all four designs are glued onto their coasters, put the waxed paper on top of them. Next,  put some heavy books on top of the waxed paper. This will help the coasters dry nice and flat. (If you use hot glue to put the pieces together you can skip this step.)

After the coasters are dry, stack them neatly together and tuck them into a pretty gift bag to give to someone you love this Christmas.

Photo of coaster copyright K. Thomas. Photo of felt copyright Siona Watson.

Katelyn Thomas is a freelance writer, mixed media artist and busy mom. You can find her parenting and frugal living tips at Mama On the Go.

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