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Here’s an inexpensive way you can pimp out your ride; Punch Needling your own car cup holder coaster! There are so many pros to this fun Punch Needle craft; it’s insane. But we aren’t ones above crafty insanity, so let’s list em out!
- Budget-friendly
- Beginner ready
- Absolutely adorable
- Completely customizable
- Makes a terrific inexpensive gift
- A super fun and relaxing activity
Those are just a handful of the awesome perks of making these cute and awesome car cup holder coaster sets by using your handy-dandy Punch Needle.
In this article, we’ll walk you through step by step how to craft your own car cup holder coaster sets and links to helpful Punch Needle tips and tricks if you’re still at the beginning of your Punch Needle journey.
Alrighty, let’s pump up this crafting jam and create some car cup holder coaster sets!
Supplies for Car Cup Holder Coaster
Before we can get into the fun of punching and needling a sweet set of car cup holder coaster, we must make sure we have the right supplies first!
Because nothing is worse than when you start a craft and, halfway through, you realize you don’t have the right materials. We’re super psyched for you to craft your own car cup holder coaster, so we want to ensure we cover this important info straight away.
- Punch Needle (Regular Punch Needle works for this car cup holder coaster DIY, we’re using a medium size Punch Needle in this DIY)
- Wire Threader
- Wool/Acrylic Yarn
- Trimmer/Scissors
- Embroidery Hoop
- Monks Cloth
- Felt
- Writing Utensil (Fabric Pen/Sharpie)
- Hot Glue Gun (W/ Hot Glue Sticks)
- Mod Podge (Not Pictured, Optional)
DIY Steps for Car Cup Holder Coasters
Time to get into this super fun and easy car cup holder coaster Punch Needle DIY! For the car cup holder coaster that you’ll see in this DIY, we’ve gone with a fun and simplistic design.
Choosing a simple design, such as the PacMan head and 8 pool ball in this DIY, is a good idea to ensure that details don’t get lost in such a small design. Sense car cup holder coaster sizes are typically smaller, it will be more efficient and easy to pick out a simplistic design.
Here are some other fun ideas for car cup holder coaster designs!
- Flower
- Peace sign
- Mushroom head
- Baseball
- Social media icon
- Donut
- Bird’s eye view coffee cup
- Dollar sign
- Eyeballs
- Rainbow
- Emoji
- Cookie
- Pool balls
- Traffic signs
- Abstract shapes
There’s quite literally an endless amount of creative and fun car cup holder coaster ideas that you can come up with and try out! The inspiration is endless!
Step 1: Prepare Your Hoop & Thread Your Punch Needle
You’ve got an awesome car cup holder coaster idea in your head, but keep it there for just a bit longer, please. You want to make sure you have your monks cloth on your embroidery hoop nice and taut before you draw your car cup holder coaster design on.
A neat tip for getting the right size for your car cup holder coaster is to measure by using the bottom of a cup that fits in your cup holder. For this car cup holder coaster DIY, the size of our cup was perfect for a small embroidery hoop we already had.
Make sure that your monks cloth is secured and tight onto your embroidery hoop; if it’s not, this could cause your loops/stitches to unravel while you’re working hard on your car cup holder coaster set.
Once your hoop is ready to go, choose the color of yarn that will be for your smallest details first and thread it on your Punch Needle.
If you’re new to Punch Needle check out our simple step-by-step on how to thread a Punch Needle!
Pro Tip: Even though this a fairly short project, fraying Monks Cloth can be quite annoying when your Punch Needling. To prevent this, you can use blue painter’s tape and tape the sides. Once you’re finished, you can remove the tape easily!
Step 2: Begin Punching Smaller Details First
An important note, before you start Punch Needling, is to remark that the length of your needle determines the length of your loops, which will be your end result side. For this DIY, we suggest adjusting your needle length (If Punch Needle allows) to a shorter length so your car cup holder coaster appears fuzzier and the design can hold its shape better.
Now, onto the fun part, Punching (Well, you know what we mean)!
Begin with the smaller details first (For example, we started with PacMan’s eye), and make sure that you punch your needle all the way down so it touches the monks cloth.
For the first stitches, pull the tail of the yarn through to the back side and gently lift your needle up but not off of the fabric; then you can continue punching. Watch our video below to see how this works!
When you’re done Punch Needling in a particular area, you can pull out a bit of yarn from the eye of your needle, take your scissors, and snip. Then, pull your needle through, and the tail of your last stitch will be visible in the back (We’ll snip these later!)
Did you finish Punch Needling the small details of your super-cool car cup holder coaster design? That’s terrific! Now, we can move onto the big parts in step 3.
Step 3: Continue Punching Larger Sections
Just as you so awesomely did with the smaller details in your future car cup holder coaster, you can move onto the bigger sections and punch them up!
Below is a video example of the last few stitches being made in our PacMan car cup holder coaster, and you can also see all the tails on the looped side that we’ll be snipping off soon.
Step 4: Finish Punching & Snip Tails Off The Looped Side
Whoop whoop! We’re all done Punch Needling now, and you are a few steps closer to some new dope car cup holder coaster sets.
This step is nice and easy and a somewhat relaxing step. All you need to do is snip off the tails on your looped (back) side. This will be your presenting side!
Step 5: Glue Flat Side & Cut Monks Cloth
The gluing of the flat side (front) with Mod Podge is optional, but if you’d like to ensure your stitches and hard work are extra safe, you can apply a layer of Mod Podge to the flat side (front) of your car cup holder coaster like in the photo below. Allow at least an hour of drying time.
Once the Mod Podge has dried, you can take your car cup holder coaster design off of the hoop.
Next, with your scissors, cut around your design with about a 2-inch border, cutting off the extra Monks Cloth that isn’t needed.
Once that is finished, you can cut slits all around your design, creating little tabs that you’ll be able to hot glue down in the next step. You don’t want to cut into your yarn/loops, but you do want to cut as close as you can to them.
Now it’s time to hot glue those little tabs down! This part can be a little tedious, but it’s all worth it for the fun car cup holder coaster that’s well on its way!
Step 6: Hot Glue Onto Felt, Cut Out, & Enjoy!
Cut out a piece of felt that you can use as backing for your car cup holder coaster. It doesn’t need to be the exact size; you can cut the extra off after you’ve hot-glued the coaster onto it.
Apply hot glue to the back of your car cup holder coaster and press it down onto the felt. Put a little bit of pressure on it to make sure that it applies well.
Check to see if there are any spots where you can re-apply hot glue around the edges of your car cup holder coaster. We want to make sure it’s in tip-top shape for your hot rod!
Once you’ve finished hot gluing, you can use your scissors to cut off the extra backing felt.
And that’s it! That is the very last step in crafting your own Punch Needle car cup holder coaster set. Wasn’t that fun, easy, and relaxing!?
Punch Needling is a fun hobby anyone can join in on, and we hope with all our crafting hearts that you’ve enjoyed this fun car cup holder coaster DIY, and you come back for more Punch Needle patterns and fun!