Spring is just around the corner - are you as excited about that as I am? I love spring! Unfortunately, it's still pretty much winter here in Edmonton, Alberta. The weather has been treating us nicely this week, but we STILL have three feet of snow in our backyard!*hrmpfh* So, since it's still more winter than it is spring at the moment, I thought it would be ok to post this quick tutorial on how to make easy snowflake coasters using felt. Keep in mind that you don't have to make snowflakes, you could make ANY shape. Perhaps a flower!

What you need:

• felt (any colors you like, I had blues/brown/white)
• interfacing (or extra felt instead)
• sewing machine (or thread and needle)
• disappearing ink pen

First, open up the PDF template at the bottom of this post, and save it to your compy. Print out on an 8.5 in x 11 in piece of paper. You'll see that there are two snowflake shapes - one small, and a large one with lines on it. The larger one is the actual size of the coasters (you need two of this shape to make one coaster), the lines are where to sew. The smaller shape is for the interfacing that gets sandwiched between the two larger pieces. You want to have this interfacing in between the two snowflake pieces so it's a bit thicker, and can absorb a bit more moisture. 

Decide how many coasters you want, then cut out twice as many of the larger snowflake piece (if you want 6 coasters, cut 12 large snowflakes). To do that, trace the shape onto the felt with a disappearing ink pen. You only need to cut out one small snowflake shape for each coaster. You can use interfacing like I did, or just use more felt.

With your pieces all cut, lay them out and put them together with one large snowflake on the bottom, one small piece of interfacing in the center, then another large snowflake on top. Make sure you are happy with the colors! If you used fusible interfacing (like I did) make sure you iron it on before you put on your top piece.

Next, you're ready to sew them together. You can do this by hand, or use a sewing machine. The lines on the larger snowflake template give you an idea of how to sew them together. It's all straight lines, so it's pretty easy. Alternatively, you could sew all around the edges if you prefer, but you'd have to make sure the edges of your snowflake pieces line up perfectly. For mine, I turned the top piece slightly so the points didn't line up perfectly - I liked that better.

Tip: For some reason my disappearing ink pen didn't do a very good job of disappearing on its own. *grrr*  If that happens to you, all you gotta do is dab the ink with a wet cloth and it will disappear. 

As always, send me photos if you've made this! I'd love to see them.

This project is featured here (yay!): One Pretty Thing, eHow, also on Pinterest and Craftgawker

Link party ♥: Bella Before & After, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts, Creations by Kara, Night Owl Crafting, My Backyard Eden, Sew Much Ado, We Are That Family, Women Who Do It All, Mommy's Online Garage Sale, Take It From Me, Trendy Treehouse, Sassy Sites, The Girl Creative

Handmade items by Billie Monster on Etsy