I think I’m on a roll with the whole Rustic Christmas theme this year, don’t you think? And I’ve got another one for you that’s fairly painless because you can either cut your own coasters or you can buy plain ones at places like Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart and even Amazon carries them for anywhere from $4.99 to $14.99. Now how you decorate them will depend on #1 -your abilities, #2 – what tools & equipment you have on hand, say like a Cameo Silhouette machine.
What got me started on this little project was all the wood my boys brought home this past fall. We’re going to be using part of it for my son’s upcoming wedding in April, but I also had some other ideas for the smaller pieces that I thought would make cute gifts.
I dug through the pile of wood and located smaller branches that I knew would be perfect for my Rustic Woodland Coaster.
Most of the pieces had extra branches poking out from the sides, but it was a fairly easy remedy as I just cut them off with my chop saw before hand.
Once I was ready to do some assembly line cutting, I first measured out how thick I wanted them to be and settled in at 1/2 an inch. I use painters tape to mark out a line on my chop saw so I could just start cutting and not worry about measuring each one. Again, these are rustic, so having them perfect each time isn’t necessary.
As you can see some of these had branches that still needed to be chopped off. It was easier on this particular branch to wait until they were in smaller pieces to cut them off.
I got quite a stack from just one branch.
Then came the fun creative part. I made a deer stencil from my Cameo Silhouette and then used my basic black craft paint to fill it in. I let it dry and then pulled the stencil away to reveal a deer head.
I had quite the assembly line going here too.
After they had dried, I added a top coat to protect them from moisture, but next was adding some felt to protect the bottoms from scratching wood surfaces.
I purchased a roll of adhesive backed felt from Amazon and used a canning lid to cut out the round circles I’d need.
One thing to note it that all wood branches are not created equal. I know I shouldn’t need to explain myself, but I will. The canning lid is only a template, once you have your coaster ready, you’ll need to likely retrace around it and then cut off the extra felt.
Once you’ve made your adjustments, then just peel away the paper backing and secure it to the coaster.
What you end up with is a custom, super cute Rustic Woodland Coaster.
I used a bit of gold metallic paint on this one.
And with this coaster, I added red metallic paint.
Of course the classic black always looks stunning too.
Afterward, you can tie them up with some twine in groups of four and give them away as Christmas gifts.
I’m thinking this will be a nice addition to our family room too. What about you? Would you keep it or give it away?
Until next time… Toodles!
