Monday Mini Project: Drink coasters out of plastic placemats

There were a few leftover plastic placemats from my fridge coaster project.  The design on the placemats is so clean and simple and I love the transparent background, plus the little birds are so cute, so I wanted to use them somewhere else in the house instead of only inside the fridge. 

Even though we have about 2 dozen beverage coasters in our house, you can never find one when you need it.  (Literally, as I was thinking about what else I could make from these placemats, my coffee cup left a ring on my desk…easy decision.)

This project is pretty self-explanatory.  Just trace around another coaster–or any object that’s 4 to 5 inches across–on top of your plastic placemat, and then cut them out. 

These particular placemats are from IKEA, and they only cost $3 for 4.  (They have several other really cute patterns to choose from too.)  I got 4 circular drink coasters out of one placemat, but I was centering the birds, so if you were using placemats with a smaller pattern, you could get more coasters out of them. 

They make a fun addition to the bright white desk.