How to Weave a Cup Placemat

You can weave coasters out of any kind of magazine.

Don't throw away that pile of old magazines just yet! Those colorful pages can be recycled to create vibrant and completely unique cup placemats. Simply by folding pages from your magazines and weaving them together, you can create dozens of coasters to keep or give away as handmade gifts. Each coaster will be completely different from the others and cost you practically nothing to make.

Things You'll Need

• Magazines
• Scissors
• Pen knife (optional)

Instructions

1. Rip out four pages from your magazines. If you have a pen knife, score the edge of the page to cut it out of the magazine; this will give you a perfect straight edge. Try to find pages with lots of interesting colors, although this isn't necessary.

2. Trim the edge of the page with your scissors (unless you used a pen knife). Fold the page in half, then slice or cut the page at the half mark. Fold each half in half again and slice or trim the page at the half mark. This will leave you with four quarters.

3. Fold each quarter in half, then fold the edges of the page in toward the center so the edges aren't showing. Fold the entire strip in half lengthwise so you have a "V" shape. Create a second one of these strips to form your two base strips.

4. Interlock the two "V" strips by placing one horizontally and one vertically and joining them in the middle. Make sixteen total strips by repeating Steps 2 and 3.

5. Add another vertical strip to the base you created by placing the base (horizontal) strip inside of the "V."

6. Add a horizontal strip to go over the base by placing the "V" of this strip inside the second vertical strip.

7. Trim the ends of the first two horizontal rows so that you can tuck them back into the first two squares of the weave.

8. Add more strips until you're done by alternating between vertical and horizontal and remembering to alternate the "V's" going in and out. Remember to trim the excess after every second row you weave in and then tuck in what is left back into the squares.

Tips & Warnings

• You can control the color palette of the coasters by carefully selecting and folding each magazine page.

References

• Fidgety Fingers; Start Weaving Magazine Coasters