You can make easy and inexpensive coasters with glue and popsicle sticks. With a little creativity, you can easily create interesting coasters your guests might actually use! The pallet furniture trend isn’t going away any time soon, and with a few popsicle sticks, you can make coasters with a rustic, pallet look.
You will need:
Scissors you don’t particularly care about
Hot glue gun (Be careful… don’t get hurt!)
Silver fine tip Sharpie (Optional)
Step 1- Prepare the Popsicle Sticks
Start by using the scissors you don’t particularly care about to cut off the rounded part of the popsicle stick. Be careful during this process; the sticks may not always work the way you want them to.
As a result pieces may go flying off; so, I suggest doing this over a trash can as far from your eyes as possible without putting your hands at risk of being cut.
Step 2- Build the Base
Next, take two of these sticks, and place them on the table parallel to each other. Take one stick, and connect the two sticks in the middle by taking the third stick and gluing it standing up on its side. Hold it upright and glue on either side.
Then take another stick and do the same thing on either sides of the two parallel sticks. Remember you can always use the tip of the hot glue gun to melt and remove the glue if you accidentally use too much glue in one spot. Do not touch the glue, just use the tip to sort of scrape it away.
Step 3- Building the Structure
One stick needs to go in the middle, laying across all 3 popsicle sticks that you previously glued in the center of the pallet. Glue the stick in two places, on either end. Then place one stick on either end, laying flat on top of the three sticks right above the two parallel sticks. Glue the two ends down on both sticks, and reinforce in the middle if needed. Then glue down two more sticks in between the middle and end pieces. Flip over the pallet once the glue has hardened, and repeat the steps. Glue on the outside of the three base pieces instead, since the glue gun will not fit. Remember to remove glue strings as you go.
Step 4- Finish
As a final touch, you can also use a silver sharpie to draw little nails on the sticks. This will make it look more realistically like a pallet. You can also put a clear protective coating on the pallet, either nail polish or a spray on clear coating, if you are using drink cups other than mugs or tumblers, that could cause condensation and possibly ruin your sharpie work or leave marks on the wood.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. This means that I link to the products I use to make this project, and if you buy them from my link, I might earn a few cents. I only link to products I’ve actually used and liked.