Diy Coaster Kit: Mushroom Garden

Ready to create your own teacup coaster with our Mushroom Garden DIY Coaster Kit?

It's simple enough even for beginners, yet therapeutic enough even for crafty hands. Here's our step-by-step guide!

Step-by-step guide

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Step 1: Outlining your coaster design

1. Lay the canvas on top of the template.

2. Trace the coaster design onto the canvas. (You don’t have to follow the template exactly. You can make your design larger or smaller, or place the different elements in different areas. Get creative!)

Step 2: Creating and attaching the bobble moss

1. Cut the bobble yarn into sections of 2 bobbles each. 

2. Now, to attach them to the canvas. Taking the string in between the 2 bobbles, thread it through a square where you want to place your bobble moss, from the front of the canvas to the underside. Thread it back to the front through a square that’s ideally 2 squares away. 

3. The string that you’ve just threaded to the front of the canvas should be a small loop. Pull 1 bobble through the loop to secure the bobble yarn to the canvas.

4. Keep repeating with sections of 2 bobbles until it covers the area of bobble moss.

5. Once you're done, cut the remaining string from each end of each section of bobble yarn.

Step 3: Weaving the fuzzy grass

1. Thread the chenille yarn from the underside of the canvas through to the front. Tie a loop knot as close to the canvas as possible, leaving a small loop that’s your desired height of fuzzy grass. Thread the yarn through the next square to the underside of the canvas.

2. Thread the yarn to the front again, tie a loop knot and thread it back to the underside, and keep repeating until this covers the fuzzy grass area.

3. Once you're done, thread the yarn through your canvas about twice to secure it and cut the remaining yarn.

Step 4: Creating and attaching the pom pom shrub

1. Wind the milk yarn of your desired colour(s) around your fingers. If you want to make a smaller pom pom shrub, wind the yarn about 15 times around 3 fingers; for a larger, fluffier one, wind the yarn about 20 times around 4 fingers. Cut the yarn off.

2. Slide the yarn off your fingers, and with another 15-20cm piece of milk yarn, knot it tightly around the middle of your winded yarn.

3. Cut the loops on both sides.

4. With your weaving needle, comb through the yarn to undo them into individual strings of thread.

5. Trim the pom pom shrub to neaten it if needed.

6. Secure the pom pom shrub onto the canvas simply by tying it on.

7. Cut off the remainder of the string.

Step 5: Weaving the grass and pondwater

1. Thread the chenille yarn through the weaving needle, leaving one long end and one short end.

2. To start weaving, knot the long end of the yarn onto any starting point on the canvas to secure it, and weave back and forth, 3-5 squares at a time. (The underside of the canvas doesn’t have to look too neat - you’ll be making it neat and tidy with the felt backing later on.)

3. Once you reach the end of your yarn, slide it through the squares on the underside of the canvas to secure it.

Step 6: Creating and attaching the mushrooms

1. First, the mushroom head! Hold 2 red fuzzy sticks 2-3cm apart - this will be the foundation of the mushroom head.

2. Use another red fuzzy stick and wind it around the 2 sticks. Repeat using another 1-3 sticks, depending on how big you want the mushroom to be.

3. On 1 of the 2 foundation fuzzy sticks, push the wound sticks closer together and secure it into a loop by twisting the foundation fuzzy stick. Cut off the remainder of the fuzzy stick and tuck the twist in to conceal it.

4. Similarly, secure the other red fuzzy stick into a loop. This will form your cone-shaped mushroom head.

5. For the mushroom stem, cut a white fuzzy stick in half and fold both again in half. 

6. Wind another white fuzzy stick around it, starting from the folded end. Leave about 1.5-2cm of the other end unwound - 

7. Because this end will help you to secure the mushroom to the canvas! Put the mushroom stem through your canvas, and on the underside of the canvas, bend each of the 4 ends to form a cross.

9. Glue the mushroom head onto the mushroom stem.

Step 7: Stitching the flowers

1. Add embroidered details like flowers using the milk yarn and the large weaving needle. Secure the starts and ends of the yarn by knotting it on the underside of the canvas.

Step 8: Backing your coaster

1. Coaster design done! Now, you’ll be using the felt backing to tidy your canvas up and give your coaster more structure. Cut the canvas around your coaster, leaving about 3 squares of extra canvas.

2. Using the blunt stitching needle and white thread, first, knot the end of the thread onto any part of the extra canvas to secure it in place. This is where you’ll start to tuck the extra canvas into the underside of the base; stitch it in place and do this all around the entire coaster.

3. On the felt backing, get a rough idea of size of your coaster and apply the glue onto that area. Attach the coaster to the felt backing, pressing firmly onto it to ensure it’s well glued together. Leave to dry.

4. Once the glue is dry, trim off the felt backing around the edges of the coaster, or glue any areas that need more reinforcing.

5. Andddd you're done!