Perfect for a cold drink

Two of my girls are bead crazy. They love to make the designs with those plastic beads, then you iron it and they all stick together.

Like these:

Well, I had several of those sitting on  my island waiting to be melted together. I just felt like I HAD to do something with them other than get them all stuck together so that they could just get lost in the other piles of junk that my kids love.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Then it hit me....coasters!!

For these I traced the shapes onto some cotton batting scraps I had.

Then I cut those out, placed them on top of the design (while it was still on the holder) and ironed it until the beads melted enough to stick together and to the batting.

The girls had made a few designs and we've actually been able to use them as coasters. My husband didn't think it would work, but so far they've held together.

They've made up several more. This time I think I may iron the beads together a little before I put the batting (or felt for that matter) onto them and then continue to iron until it sticks. I'm just wondering if that might strengthen them even more.

So there you go. Give it a try. If you have as many of these around your house as I do, you'll probably be thrilled to actually turn them into something useful. lol