Inside: Make your own leather coasters to give as gifts this holiday season! Simple leather and cork coasters are a modern twist on a classic decor item.
The holidays are coming up so quickly! OMG. I’ve managed to get a few gifts, but I still have LOTS of wrapping to do. Plus, that’s where I’m sharing most of our home tour this Christmas. Anyway – You might recall our July Monthly DIY Challenge in which I used leather to recover a chair. Well, I had SO much leftover I didn’t want to waste it, so I thought I’d craft some of it into DIY Leather Coasters – just in time for the holidays!
If you are into handmade holiday gifts and you like metallics, you might also want to have a look at these amazing 3d Christmas trees I did using scrap wood and this ADORABLE Hygge house themed Advent Calendar. It also uses paint pens like this coaster project. I’m obsessed with picking one cool craft item and making a bunch of things to use it up. Because, let’s be real – no one wants to have leftover craft items to store after the holidays.
Supplies for DIY Leather Coasters
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- Leather or faux leather remnants
- scrap cardboard
- Fine tipped Sharpie pen
- Metallic Sharpie Paint Pen
- Good, sharp scissors
- Crafting Cork Board
- Glue gun and glue
- Sharp HB Pencil
- Mod Podge (optional)
And y’all, I’ve cracked the code. After what felt like countless hours searching and searching ways to ‘mark’ leather without an embossing tool, I’ve discovered a viable option.
How to Make DIY Leather Coasters
These coasters are a breeze. First things first, create a template of your shape with your scrap cardboard. I did a free-handed hexagon. Then with your black sharpie, trace and cut that out of your leather remnant and then trace the leather remnant onto your cork and cut that out. I did it in that order just in case I cut the leather a bit wonky, I wanted my cork to match my leather perfectly.
Now, using lots of hot glue, adhere your leather to your cork bottoms. Put something super heavy on them while they are drying to stop your leather from curling up. (I used two big books of scrapbooking paper.) Let them dry for a good few hours.
Now, here’s the trick to creating an indelible mark on your leather coasters- on Oil-Based Sharpie Paint Pen. Think about it! Leather is a natural, breathable medium, so oil based stuff won’t scratch or flake off with water or wear – just like when you get oil based paints on your hands!
I decided to go the free-handed gemstone route. I simply did a Google Image search of ‘Clipart Gemstones’ and copied a few simple designs onto my coasters using a sharp HB pencil and a light hand (don’t push too hard or you’ll tear your leather). You should be able to ‘erase’ any terrible mistakes if you go lightly.
Then trace over that a couple of times with your Metallic Paint Pen! If you want to get ambitious with your paint pens, you can also use them to create geometric shapes on the walls!
To finish them off and to stop the cork from ‘shedding’, you can seal it with a teeny craft brush and some Matte Mod Podge.
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