Homemade Trivet

While browsing Pinterest last week, I came across a river stone trivet from vivaterra.com. With crafts on the mind, I decided to try and make my own. So, off I went to Michael's Craft Store to purchase the necessary items. 

You will need: felt in a color of your choosing (I got two colors, just because), stones of your chosen size, needle & thread, scissors, craft glue, and a pen - and obviously a glass of wine. 

I traced the outline of a standard pot onto both colors of felt to create an outline for the design and cut them out. You want to use two pieces of felt even if you use two of the same color. The glue comes through the first layer just a bit so the second layer helps it look a little nicer.

I sewed the two pieces of felt together with thread that matched the cranberry color felt, as that was going to be my top side, and cut off the extra felt around the edges. In this step, I found out just how lacking my sewing skills were. So, if you think you can't do this because you don't know how to sew - I promise you it will be okay! 

Next, I picked out all of the flat (or relatively flat) stones from the bag I purchased. I ended up getting two bags just in case and I'm glad I did. There were not enough in the first bag so I had to dig a few extras out of the second. I set aside some of the smaller stones for places that needed to be filled in after all of the larger stones were used. 

I started by creating an edge with the largest of the stones and worked my way in using a circular pattern, but you can use whatever pattern or lack of pattern that you'd like. It's okay if a little bit of the glue is showing because once it dries, it is clear. 

Just a note on the glue situation: 

As I have never done something like this before, there was quite a bit of trial and error - especially when it came to the glue. I ended up getting hot glue, rubber cement, and super glue before settling on the standard "craft" glue. All types of glue before the craft glue were wildly unsuccessful in getting the stones to stick to the felt. I did manage to get my fingers stuck together for a hot minute with the super glue though - I'd advise using gloves or something of the like when you are an amateur glue-er like myself.

Once you have finished gluing all of the stones to the felt, let it dry overnight before moving it. Your finished product will look like this: 

After the trivet had dried, I decided that I should have placed a piece of cardboard or something similar between the two pieces of felt. The trivet is quite top heavy, as you can imagine, and I think the cardboard will help it last longer. I will be cutting mine open and sliding a piece of cardboard inside. 

Overall, this is a really cheap and easy craft that produces something quite useful. Thumbs up for trying something new :)