Waste not Want Not: Cardboard Coasters

Do you ever find yourself sitting at home on your couch, halfway through the crossword, with the nagging sensation that something is missing? Something at around hand height, right around where your cup of tea usually sits? Yeah, us too. That’s why this week in our Waste Not Want Not series, we’re showing you the secret to do-it-yourself cardboard coasters!

These are a breeze to make, but you will need some drying time, so allow a day or to for glue to set!

You will Need:

• One piece of cardboard, around 1 metre long (or longer, if you’d like a bigger coaster for a monster mug)
• PVA wood glue
• Several strong elastic bands
• Paint brush
• Serrated knife or saw

Instructions:

The first and most difficult step of these crafty coasters is creasing each flute of the corrugated cardboard. You’ll need to do this so you can smoothly roll the piece, and have a coaster which is circular and not full of gaps! You can use the back of a pencil to press into the grooves of the cardboard. Don’t worry if some of the pieces rip as you do this – it won’t be visible in the finished product.

Once this step is complete, it’s time to create our coaster loaf. Apply a generous amount of PVA wood glue (a paint brush can be useful here), and, using your best sushi rolling technique, begin to roll the cardboard in on itself, very tightly, gluing as you go. Check your progress throughout, and if the roll looks a little loose and gappy, just unroll and try again. When the full length has been rolled up, secure with some tight elastic bands along the length of the roll, to help keep it together and ensure the glue dries in place.

Leave the coaster loaf to ‘bake’ for at least 24 hours.

When you are confident the glue in your roll has dried, it’s time to slice up some coasters! Taking your serrated blade edge, gently score around the entire loaf each ‘slice’ you’ll be creating. Hold the roll firmly in place, and slice through the entire thickness to create each coaster. For a thicker or thinner coaster, just adjust the thickness of your ‘slice’.

When you’ve cut up your desired amount of coasters, use some more PVA wood glue to seal the cut cross section. Let this dry overnight.

And….. you’re done! These rustic coasters can be decorated in any way you’d like; you can paint them, sticker them, even wrap ribbon or trimming around the edges. We’re minimalists at heart, so we’ve left ours untreated, but half the fun of these is adding your own unique touches. Why not let everyone in your house decorate their own special coaster themselves?

The next HelloFresh product?

With all this craftiness going on, it would remiss of us not to mention the best use of a HelloFresh box: as a receptacle for eye-wateringly cute pets. This week, Rohana submitted this  gorgeous pooch to us; “Dakota making good use of the empty box.” We couldn’t agree more!

Will you be giving this cardboard coaster DIY a try? Let us know in the comments.