House of Hawthornes

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DIY Wood Slice Coasters: The Easy Way

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Super easy DIY Wood Slice Coasters made from craft store wood slices. No fancy wood burning tools required. Includes free printable templates for the arrows and instructions on How To Seal Wood Coasters!

Super easy DIY Wood Coasters made from craft store wood slices.

I was sort of excited when I started seeing more and more arrows showing up in home decor in the last year or so. I’ve seen them described as “tribal” decor, but I prefer to think of them as “camp” decor.

As in summer camp. That magical place where you learned how to make a lanyard, sew a leather wallet, use wood burning tools and first tried your hand at the sport of archery.

You know, all those skills you still use today.

So this weekend, I decided to throw together a summer camp inspired DIY project for you that is so super easy and so super quick that I’m pretty sure I may have to turn in my Arts And Crafts patch from the Brownies.

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DIY Wood Coasters

They’re like a wood burning project you would have made in camp, but without the blisters on your fingers!

(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure policy here.)

Supplies Needed:

  • Wood slices from the craft store (these are roughly 3 1/2 inches wide)
  • Sharpie Ultra Fine Precision Marker
  • Polyurethane suitable for outdoor use
  • Paper and Pencil

How to seal wood coasters and other wood slice crafts

Instructions:

For the arrows, you can go into Picmonkey and make them yourself (arrow bits and pieces are under the Overlays section). Or if you’re all artsy fartsy, you can hand draw them yourself.

And if you want to use the ones I made in Picmonkey, you can download them below:

Printable arrows for wood slice coaster DIY project

Download Printable Arrows For Wood Slice Coasters HERE
If you are not hand drawing your arrows you will need to print them out, flip them over and rub a pencil across the back.
How to transfer image onto wood

Position your arrow right side up on the wood slice and draw around the outline of the arrow to transfer the image to the wood slice.

Instructions for transferring images onto wood

When you remove the paper you will see a faint outline.

Instructions for transferring images onto wood

Take your Sharpie and redraw your outline and then fill in the rest.

An easy Sharpie craft

After the marker has dried, spray them with polyurethane and let dry completely. Use the directions on the can, but with mine it suggested spraying a few very light coats.

Learn how to seal wood coasters and other wood slice crafts

(no manicures here)
The poly I used was Ace Hardware brand, but it is similar to the Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane which is an exterior grade polyurethane. I thought that would hold up to condensation from glasses better than the indoor polys would.

How to make wooden coasters

Once dried, you are ready to go off to the woods and drink some ice cold beverages out of your vintage thermos.

DIY wood slice coaster -an easy Sharpie craft

 

If this post spoke to your heart and you think, “Wow, I could sure use some more outdoorsy camping type posts, Pam!”, throw these in your rucksack:

For more vintage camping eye candy – Let’s Go Camping

If you prefer a more solid roof over their heads while camping – Vintage Trailer Palooza

For more on my beloved thermoses – A Listing Of Posts That Have Thermoses In Them

Proof that camp stools don’t need to be ugly – Faux Grain Sack Camp Stool

On a somewhat related note – Painting A Vintage Motel Chair

Super easy DIY Wood Slice Coasters made from craft store wood slices. No fancy wood burning tools required. Includes free printable templates for the arrows and instructions on How To Seal Wood Coasters!

Have you caught the arrow bug? Not that I recommend you catching actual arrows. That might be dangerous.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Always looking for unique coasters. These are definitely cool. A fun project for sure. LOVE the camp theme.

  4. Love theses. To make them even cooler, you can take them outside and use a magnifying glass to wood burn the arrows. The area where you used the marker makes the wood burn much faster. Using the magnifing glass to direct the sunbeam is easy, and even kids can do it.

    PS. You inspired me to buy a vintage Stanley thermos. It was only 10 cents.

    • No way! That is a GREAT tip!!! I’ll warn you, once you start down the thermos collecting road, you’ll start seeing them EVERYWHERE!

  5. I think these are so adorable! They look great Pam! I love your tip on transferring the design onto pieces of wood. Brilliant!

  6. They added 3 days onto the end of the school year because of all the snow days this year, so now it’s June 5th. I bet you can’t wait for summer to start 🙂

  7. Fun! And as you know from my IG posts, I love to enjoy ice cold beverages outside during the summer so these are a perfect project for me!

    ~Erica

    • I was going to try to draw a tent and a canoe on some also, but those were too far above my artistic skill level 🙂 I’m strictly a stick figure and straight line person.

  9. Pam, You have done it again! We have cut lots of those wooden circles from trees we’ve had to cut down. I Love
    the arrow designs. I agree they are more camp looking than trendy tribal. I have that same greenish wooden
    chair I use as a prop for our vintage trailer (she is OLD, UGLY, and COZY and decorated with vintage camp
    items. These will be perfect to use with all the other “stuff”. I will try the canoe and maybe a lantern. Oooh,
    a hanging mobile! Thank you again!

  11. For a wedding, cut slices of berch, 3-5″ round on bandsaw, place circles with names of bride & and groom with paper glue to one side of slice & name of Guest to the other side for seating arrangements . Enjoy dinner, and coaster gift to take home!

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