Colorful Coasters DIY
If you believe that the “entertaining” devil is in the details, this post is for you!
Have you noticed how people get fixated on one or two things you do for entertaining and those set up the tone for the whole event? Well, here is an idea you can do to start your dinner/brunch with a bang: colorful coasters!
This is how the conversation with your guests would go:
Guest: WOW! Did you make these?
You: Yes, I did.
Guest: They are gorgeous.
You: Yeap, they are!
Guest: How did you make them?
You: I got the idea from this amazing blog called Jest Cafe. You should read it.
Guest: You are the best host ever!!
You: I know.
A wonderful brunch/dinner will follow where everybody talks about your fantastic craft woman abilities.
You are welcome!
How to make colorful coasters that will impress your friends
Difficulty (1-5): 1 Time: 2 hrs Cost: $20-$35
Materials:
For this project, I got the inspiration from this image I found on Pinterest. The image is from Ampers and Design Studio.
Isn’t so happy and cute? I decided to use a similar motive for my coasters. Here is what I did.
Instructions
1) Draw your designs with a pencil. Use blue scotch tape for straight lines.
2) Because the cork is uneven, is easy to get lines that bleed. To get straight lines, you need to do a paint stroke starting in the blue tape and moving into the cork. 
3) Be creative! I played a couple of podcasts while painting and I like the results.
Here are more photos of the coasters:
For more ideas for your dinner party, here are some posts about an easy-to-do flower arrangement, 3 cute tablescapes, and a naked cake. Hope you like them!
After asking an insane amount of questions -my friends are curious- we started making truffles. The idea was to cover the truffles with the tempered chocolate. It was fun and tasty.
Those dirty gloves are the defintion of FUN!
After that, we used transfer sheets to decorate chocolates. You need to apply the sheets while the chocolate is still warm and leave it there until the chocolate is completely dry. This will leave the design on the chocolate, making it look beautiful. Take a look:
Finally, we created mendiants. 
Look at this beauty:
1) Cut the chicken wire and place it inside the vase. Fill the vase 2/3 with water. I like to use chicken wire for flower arrangements because it allows to place the branches (specially the first ones) in the exact position you want. You can also use 
2)Prepare your flowers. It is good to have your flowers arranged separately to be ready for use. You can have them on a table next to your vase. Remember to cut the tip of the stems before placing flowers in the vase to allow for better water absorption.
3) Decide the height and width of your arrangement. Place three branches that will delineate the space you want to work with. I used 3 magnolia branches. See above.
4) If you want to do a base of greenery, add it to the bottom. You can build up from it. I didn’t want to have too much greenery in my arrangement so I didn’t do this.
6) Start filling up empty space with filler flowers. In my case, I used hellebores, , white peonies, white sweet pea, white lisianthus, and white pieres japonica.
2) Mark with your pencil the places where you want to drill holes. I marked 42 holes with 6in. in between and 4in between rows. I alternated rows of 4 and 3 holes.
3) Drill the holes
4) Screw the hooks into the drill holes
5) Drill and screw 4 hooks to the other side of the plywood. One on each corner. Attach a rope to the hooks. You will use this rope to hang the decoration (see full photos below).
6) Start hanging your flowers with rubber bands. Choose the length and colors of your flowers and hang them one by one. I used bundles of 2-3 flowers at a time. You can use anything that is in season on your local grocery store. Roses and tulips are good options.
1) Get a colorful tablecloth – velvet preferably. I bought this dark purple velvet at a fabric store and then used it as tablecloth. It turned out pretty cute, fancy, and luxurious. 
2) Get 
3) Get candles. Candles turn a normal dinner into a romantic one in seconds. Buy some colorful candles that match the rest of your table setting.
4) Colorful wine glasses. These 
1) Use textiles as tablecloth. There is no end to all the textiles we can use for the table! This is a handmade textile I bought in Chile.
2) Mix metallics. This
3) Choose a surprising napkin color. These
4) Pay attention to the flowers. There is no need to spend a lot of money in flowers. Tulips are in season right now. The good thing about tulips is that they command attention and they come in a lot of different colors. I like how, in this table setting, they complement the red color but also add touches of yellow.
1) Let the wood shine. Rustic is natural. Don’t use tablecloth if you have a wooden table, instead, use a runner like 
2) Decorate with succulents. Grab any succulents in your home and use them as decorations for the table. Cheap and E-A-S-Y!
