St. Patrick's Pixel Art Coaster for Your Pints

In this instructable I will show you how I made these four-leaf clover shaped coasters, perfect for putting on them your pint of beer in St. Patrick's Day.

You will need:

- Set of beads for pixel artes, such as "Hama beads". I used "Pyssla Beads" set from Ikea.

- Hot glue gun

- Scissors

- A piece of felt (fabric)

- Iron

- Something flat and heavy (I used a pack of printing paper)

- Something for drawing on the felt (like a pencil for drawing on fabric or a marker)

Use the pattern which usually comes with the beads set for making the shape of a clover, big enough for holding the base of your glass. Notice that I changed a bit the shape while creating it, so the beads position are slightly different from the first picture to the last one.

Also, If your pattern is too small (like mine) you'll have to finish it later. Don't worry: this is as easy to fix like ironing the first part and then adding the rows left. I'll show you in step 4.

Use an iron and a sheet of grease-proof paper for melting the beads so they glue together. While it stills hot, put the design under something flat and heavy, so we prevent it from bending. Let it cool down.

If your pattern is too small (the one that comes with the Ikea's pyssla beads, for example) you'll have at this moment an incomplete clover. Simply put it on the pattern again, like in the pictures, so you can add the extra rows left, and then iron it again like in step 3.

Now take your clover and put it on the piece of felt. Draw a square which contains it and cut it. Then, draw the shape of the pattern on one of the corners. By folding the square in half, you'll cut two of the corners at once. Repeat it, folding the square in the perpendicular direction, and cutting the other two corners. You will have a symmetrical piece of felt with the shape of your clover.

Notice that is better to make all the cuts leaving the mark you did in the outside of the cut, because the square you draw is slightly bigger than the clover, and we want it to be slightly smaller.

Take your hot glue gun, and put some glue in the base of the clover (the side where the beads are not flat by the iron and they still hollow). Quickly put the piece of felt over it and press it until the glue dry.

You can also make this coaster in other colours or even in another shape (three-leaf clover, for example). I did them one in green and another one in orange because these colours are more Irish, so they are perfect for St. Patrick's Day.

Now your table will be safe from beer stains during St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you liked it!