DIY wood slice coasters have been on my radar for a long time now. Only I refused to buy the slices. (Yes, you can buy them.) I mean, what good is having an acre of property if you can't get yourself some free wood slices now and again? Just my luck that recently our burn pile provided me with a few tree limbs that were perfect fodder for the job. I told my husband not to burn them so I could use them for a project. That's when I got that look. You know the look I'm talking about, right?

The look that says I think you're crazy but I love you anyway. So, thanks to Mr. CBD and his handy hand saw, I ended up with these. 


Luckily the tree limbs just happened to be the perfect size for coasters, around 2 inches across. I was totally serious, though, when I said you can buy these. Just check out my project materials list below.

It's a very simple project. Here's what you'll need:

MATERIALS

1. I used Dura Clear Soft Touch Varnish from JoAnne's. But you can easily order it on line, as Satin Dura ClearVarnish. 
    
2. Wood Slices. Find them in your yard, or pick them up here as Natural Blank Wood Slices.
At around 55 cents a slice it's not a bad price.

3. Black Acrylic Paint (not shown), any brand. I know I show a Sharpie in the picture but I changed my mind and went with the paint instead!

4. One roll of cork, which I had on hand from other projects. You can pick up a pack of Adhesive Cork Sheets which is actually even easier (I need to get me some!) because since it's self-adhesive you won't have to mess with glue. Which leads me to the next material on my list.

5. Glue gun and glue sticks. 

6. Stencils (or make your own!)

I put this project together for one of my monthly challenge groups. This challenge was for my "Dose of DIY" group and the particular challenge I chose was to create something with a farmhouse feel. And I believed I could do that with just these few slices of wood.

The most difficult part in all of this was trying to figure out what to put ON the coasters. I'd seen some really intricate artwork, as well as deer silhouettes and arrows. Knowing that I couldn't handle creating any intricate artwork myself, I knew I had to go with something simple. That left me with what I'd already seen, letters, numbers and grainsack stripes! Yup, that's what I came up with for a rustic farmhouse feel.

Unfortunately, I tried my grainsack idea and it did not look like I thought it would. It was pretty much meh. So I fell back on my old standby- numbers. I grabbed my 1 through 10 number stencil set from Antique Farmhouse and I was ready to roll. You can see some ads for their very cool, farmhouse-inspired decor in my sidebar. 









Before applying the varnish I traced each of the wood slices onto the cork. Then I cut out the cork circles and glued them with hot glue onto the bottom of the coasters (in the hopes of protecting the furniture from any scratches). You can totally skip this step if these are going to be used for outdoor a.k.a. porch use since they probably won't hurt any porch or patio furniture. Mine were actually quite smooth on the bottom but I didn't want to take any chances. Then, using a paint brush, I painted a coat of clear varnish onto the top of each slice to protect it from future wet glasses, cans or bottles.

And here is the final product after all was said and done.









The small bottles say "Fairview Farm Dairy, Dixon, IL" and the larger bottle in the back says "5 cents Pasturite Dairy, Morris, IL." Living in the Chicago suburbs, I find these vintage milk bottles all the more charming.