How to Turn a Floor Sample into a Cute Summer Coaster

Hey there, Beautiful friends! I know that the Silhouette Creator’s Challenge is usually the second Thursday of the month but life happens and we decided as a group to post on Friday. Gotta live that summa-time life, right?? In case you’re new here’s what the SCC is: each month a few awesomely crafty ladies and myself make something awesome with our Silhouette CAMEOS and Portraits. Previous challenges include: Harry Potter t-shirt,  British phone booth art,  Coldplay lyric tote bag, crochet hook storage box, beach finds treasure bag, pumpkin spice tea towel, a hello fall mason jar vase, a utensils holder, glittery art, some helpful planner clips, a decorated planter, and a stenciled wood round.

This month the theme was anything summer, so I started racking my brain for a project that would be adorable and also useful. I looked around at my craft stash and spotted this:

Do you know what that is? It’s a floor sample! That’s right, it’s a laminate flooring sample that I picked up from Home Depot ages ago when we were contemplating putting new flooring in our old house. After picking it up – inspiration struck – this floor sample would make the perfect DIY summer coaster! Follow along with the tutorial below to make your own 🙂

DIY Summer Coaster Materials

• Silhouette machine
• White vinyl
• Hook tool
• Transfer tape
• Scraper tool
• Wood or laminate floor sample (you can find these at big box home improvement stores)

Step 1

Find a summery design in your Silhouette Studio Library or buy one from the Design Store. I got this adorable little design called “Summer Icons” for 99 cents! Open it up in your software.

Step 2

I only wanted the drink portion of this design so I used the eraser tool to get rid of the sunglasses and then sized my design to fit onto my floor sample – in this case 4×2.5 inches was perfect.

Step 3

Once you are satisfied with the size and placement of your design, head into the cut menu, and set your material to vinyl, and your blade depth to 2 (don’t forget to change your actual blade in the machine to 2 as well!)

Step 4

Insert your roll of white vinyl (or in my case, a scrap of vinyl on a cutting mat) into the machine. Hit ‘Send to Silhouette’ back in your software and watch her go!

Step 5

Once the machine is done cutting, remove your vinyl, cut around your design to avoid wasting extra vinyl and weed with your hook tool. Super cute!

Step 6

Use your scraper tool and adhere a piece of transfer tape over the top of your design. Be sure to press down to ensure that your design sticks to the tape.

Step 7

Transfer your design to the floor sample and then smooth down with the scraper tool. Peel back the transfer tape and then use the scraper tool again to smooth down any areas that didn’t fully stick.

And that’s it! Easy peasy and now you have an adorable summer coaster made from some upcycled materials! How cool is that??

I love the quirky graphic design of the drink cup – it’s absolutely the cutest AND it tells you where to put your drink at the same time. Boom. Functionality.

Perfect for a mason jar filled with ice cold water (or whatever your beverage of choice is) on a hot sunny summer day!

Don’t forget to include a paper straw for some extra fun! 😉

Cheers! 😉

Now be sure to check out all of the other fun summer projects by clicking on a link below! Be sure to leave them some love in the form of a comment or share!

Turn Floor Sample into Cute Sumer Coaster – Dwell Beautiful

Farmhouse Ice Cream Cone Holder DIY – Houseful of Handmade

DIY Summer Drink Charms – Pocketful of Posies

What’s your fave summer drink to cool off with?