So I have been having a blast with coasters, and have decided to share some how to's with you all. Especailly with the holidays fast approaching. You can make some great gifts that wont cost an arm in a leg, and still look great.
Here is lesson one: Today we are learning about using the round coasters to make ornaments. Yeppers she did say that. They are actually shaker ornaments.First you will need some two four inch blank round coasters. The ones I have are medium weight. I have some for sale in case anyone needs them. You will also need one piece of light weight plastic, stronger than a transparency, but thin enough to use in the cuttlebug. You will also need one piece of 4.25x4.25 paper, and one 5x5 inch paper. You will need doodads, like card or present glitter. I also use nail gems for this because they are cheap and small enough. You can also use beads and microbeads. Do not use glitter glitter. I did on my first try and well, it sticks to your photo. ...lol You will also need approximately 18 inches of ribbon. For adhesives I used: foam tape, zig pen, and tacky glue. You will need a picture no bigger than 4x4.
Step one: Take the smaller of the two papers and adhere it to the front of one of the coasters, printed side up. Next trim around the coaster to take off the excess paper.
Step two: I am gonna give you instructions using the necessibilites circles, but you can also trace a circle on and hand cut it out. As I was saying, place a circle nestie, in the middle of the coaster that has the printed paper on it, printed paper up, nested facing down. My circle nestie, was approximately .5 inch in from the outer edge. I taped my nestie in place so it would not move around. If you tape it, make sure the tape is on the inner part of the circle. Now run it through the cuttlebug, several times. I did about four times. Once you are done, carefully pull away the center circle, and then the nestie. You should be left with an embossed ring.
Step three: Now take the ring and place it over the other blank coaster and make sure you line up the edges. Once you have, trace the inner circle of the ring. This will let you know where to place your photo.
Step four: Now take your photo and either trace the inner circle and cut out your photo for the ornament or use the same circle nestie and cut out your picture. I used the nestie method.
Step five: take the inbetween size circle nestie and cut the clear plastic, or trace and cut the plastic that way. Make sure your plastic circle is bigger than the hole in the middle of the ring, but smaller than the outer edge of the blank coaster.
Step six: Using your zig pen, make a line of glue all the way around the inner circle on the non printed side of the ring coaster.Lay plastic circle down on top and press.
Step seven: Useing foam tape, go around the outer edge of the ring coaster on the side that has the plastic attached.
Step eight: Sprinkle in doodads. Again, make sure you
dont sprinkle in glitter like I did. Set aside for a moment.
Step nine: Adhere cut photo to blank coaster, lining up with the circle drawn in the middle.
Step ten: Remove backing from foam tape, and place blank coaster on top of it. Make sure you line up edges, and that you are doing the side with the photo down, so that when it is lifted up, you should see your photo through the hole.
Step eleven: Cut a scalloped circle out of the last piece of paper. It should be 4.75 inches in diameter. I used story book for this part.
Step twelve: Punch a whole in one of the scallops, leaving enough room at the edge for a little tugging, so that the ribbon wont tear the paper easily.
Step thirteen: Using a bottle or glass, take your ribbon piece and wrap it around the bottle/glass. Tie a bow, and then slide it off.
Step fourteen: Thread the bow loop through the punched hole from printed side to back side. This will make your bow, stay on top and act as a hanger.
Step fifteen: Adhere the shaker circles to the front of the scalloped circle. You may have to sticky dot the bow, onto the shaker circle part to keep it in place.
Step sixteen: Decorate any way you want.
Well, I hope this has been fun. Stay tuned all week because I am going to be posting more coaster projects. If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me or email me. Have fun and please post pics of your take on this ornament. The one I made is going to the lady that gave us our darling lily...lol Have fun. TC and GB. Anne
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