How to Make Coasters From Used CDs

Save all your old CDs that are too scratched up to play. Or rescue the free CDs that internet providers send you in the mail from ending up in a landfill. Turn these seemingly useless plastic disks into decorative drink coasters to protect your tables from the water marks that condensation from drinks can leave behind. Making your own CD drink coasters is craft simple enough for even young children to make with the help of an adult.

Things You'll Need

• Used CDs
• Felt
• Chalk
• Scissors
• Low-temperature glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Paper plate

Instructions

1. Place each CD onto a piece of felt and trace the outer edge of the CD onto the felt. Cut the tracings out with scissors along the inside edge of the chalk line so no chalk marks are left on the cut out piece of felt.

2. Plug in your low-temperature hot glue gun and load a hot glue stick into the back of the gun. Allow the gun to heat up for at least ten minutes. Set the gun on a paper plate as it heats to prevent drips from getting on your work surface.

3. Glue the felt circles you cut onto the side of the CD you don't want to show on the top of the coaster. For CDs that have decorative prints on the top of them, you may want to cover the shiny side of the CD with felt. For CDs that were free, such as AOL installation CDs from the mail, you may want to glue the felt over the label on the CD and use the shiny side of the CD as the top of your coaster. The felt basically works as a protective buffer between the bottom of the CD coaster and the table you set it on.

Tips & Warnings

• Decorate the side of the CD you plan to use as the top of the coaster with acrylic paint before attaching the felt. This can make your coasters more decorative or make them fit a theme.

• Make recycled CD coasters to suit each holiday or make coaster sets to give as gifts.