"Jenga" Coasters

So...

If you follow my blog, you know that I made this plant stand using the faux "Jenga" game from the Dollar Tree.

They call it "Tumbling Towers."

Since I had only used a few of the 36 pieces, I kept thinking about what I could make with the rest of them and it hit me in the middle of the night...

COASTERS!

Yep... I made coasters using materials that I already had.

Here's how it all went down.

I grabbed my Gorilla Wood Glue (the best, the best, the best!!!), the game pieces, parchment paper, cork, rubber bands, and polyurethane spray paint.  I had all of these on hand, so there was no additional out of pocket costs.

I laid out a piece of the parchment paper, secured at the edges with washi tape.  This is a great way to glue items and not worry about them sticking to your work surface, especially when there is the chance of glue seeping out.

I had formulated this layout in my mind, knowing the dimensions of the pieces from the plant stand project.

I dry fit them and made piece exchanges as needed.  Not all the pieces are perfect, so this was important for creating as square a coaster as possible.

I separated them into like configurations, so that the gluing part would be systematic.

I spread a bit of the glue on one edge and used my finger to smooth it out on as much of the wood piece.

I lined it up with a second piece and squeezed it together.

These pieces are VERY lightweight, so there was no chance of it not making a strong hold

I did however, make sure that the edges of the glued pieces were as flush with each other as possible. 

This would allow for all the pieces to fit as tight together when it was all done.

I glued the "four" sections first.

I made sure that they were flat on top and flush on the sides.

I then glued  the sections together, making sure they too were even and flush.

You can see above that all the seams were straight shots when glued, and that there was very little space between them.

I used a large thick rubber band (thanks to the USPS) as a clamp around the whole coaster.

I let it dry for a few hours.

On the underside of the coaster, I noticed that there were a few gaps (uneven pieces), but it wouldn't matter in the end.

I repeated those steps with the second coaster.

Once it was dry, I removed the rubber bands.

I traced each coaster over a piece of think cork that I had in my craft stash.

Using a pair of scissors and a craft knife, I cut those pieces out.  I found that the scissors worked a bit better than the craft knife.

I made sure to dry fit the cork with the coaster, trimming any overage and cleaning up any cork bits and raw edges.

I marked the first coaster and cork slab with a 1 so that I could adhere the exact piece I dry fit.  

I didn't want to chance that the coasters were exact.

I marked the second one with a 2 for the exact same reason.

I used a spray polyurethane to coat the top and sides of the coasters.

Here's the first coat.  It really kept the wood a natural color, BUT it brought out the darker parts of the pine as well.

I did a light sanding in between the coats of poly.  I coated it 3 times, letting it dry in between coats.

I applied a generous amount of the wood glue to the back of each coaster.

Using my finger, I "buttered" the back side all the way to the edges.

I dropped the coordinating piece of cork on top and moved it till it was perfectly even on all four sides.

I repeated that with the other coaster and let them both dry.

And here they are...

These coasters are making the trip to Californa as they will be a perfect decor item for the BoHo chic apartment we are decorating for darling daughter.

(I will do an apartment post once I have all those pictures!)

I know there are so many different ways to create these coasters from that one game.

You will need 2 of those games to create 4 coasters in all.  Each coaster uses 10 pieces.

You could paint these with chalk paint, rough them up, add a glaze, and then wax them and they would be the perfect "farmhouse decor" coasters.

If you stained each piece with different by coordinating stains, you could create "industrial decor" coasters.

Image each piece painted with coordinating bright colors for a "tropical decor" theme?

You could also use them at a wedding or shower.  Have guests write their name on them then create your coasters.  Coat with poly and you have coasters that remind you of your wedding or shower.

The ideas a literally endless...

and so so affordable!