Patriotic Freezer Paper Coasters

I have been shocked by all of the DIY coasters that crafters have created.  In fact, I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to DIY coasters.  I really like coasters as a way to spice up a table for any holiday.  A few years ago, I created a tutorial for Beaded Patriotic Coasters that I loved, but were quite time consuming and very delicate.   This year, I am going to show you a quick tutorial to design your own patriotic freezer paper coasters that will take less than 15 minutes to complete.   I used my Cricut Explore Air™ machine, but I am also going to show you how to make coasters using freezer paper without a cutting machine.

You need very few supplies for this project, regardless of if you are using your cutting machine, or creating a design by hand.

Supplies for Patriotic Freezer Paper Coasters

Note that the links below are to the materials that I used, and are affiliate links.  

• Cork Coasters (available at craft stores)
• Freezer Paper
• Iron
• Masking Tape or Artist’s Tape
• Acrylic Craft Paint
• Small Paint Brushes
• Cutting Machine or Scissors and Sharpie Marker

I want to note that freezer paper as a stencil will only work if  you can adhere it to the surface with an iron.  Thus, it’s only going to work with a softer, porous surface like cork, wood, and most especially fabric.  This works really well with fabric.

I found  a square star design that was available with Cricut Access, and sized it to fit the 4 inch cork coasters.  I placed the freezer paper shiny side down on a light grip mat.  I cut the design out with the machine, and used the Paper- setting because freezer paper is more delicate.

I also created a star with a permanent marker that was the approximate size of the coaster, and cut the design out with my scissors.  If you’d like to be more precise, you could use a star stencil, but  I didn’t have one that was large enough.

I lined the freezer paper design on the coaster, shiny shine down, and ironed the paper onto the coaster using a medium high setting.  The freezer paper will now be temporarily glued to the cork coaster. I did this for both my hand cut and Cricut design.

Then I used artist tape to create diagonal stripes across the coaster, on top of the freezer paper.

I removed every other piece of paper, and used acrylic tape to paint the cork with a small paint brush.  I painted the red part of the stripes first.  (I actually love those cheap children’s watercolor brushes for these type of projects.)

When the red paint had dried, I gently removed the remaining masking tape, and carefully painted the exposed cork with silver paint.

Once the silver paint had dried, I carefully and gently removed the freezer paper to reveal the design.  I decided to add a little blue, so for my hand drawn star, I filled in the design with blue acrylic paint.  For the Cricut cut design, I painted the edges with blue paint.

These patriotic freezer paper coasters were so easy to make, and will look perfect for any Memorial Day or 4th of July picnic this year.  Depending on your stencil and patience, you can easily make a more complex design by hand, or use any of the design options available in Cricut Design Space.

Remember, busy hands, happy heart!  Let’s go create!