This is a sponsored post on behalf of Disney. I receive product or compensation for this post, but all opinions, pictures, and tutorials are my own.
Our evenings at home usually consist of someone taking on the unwanted job of cooking dinner and someone being the couch potato and watching tv with J. With me being in turn nauseous, then fat, then uncomfortable, and now with a baby attached to me, you can guess who cooks dinner and who is the potato. J’s favorite shows and movies have either cars, superheroes or monsters in them, in typical boy fashion, and preferably have lots of crashing, falling, and other slapstick incidents. So you can bet we’re pretty excited for the release of the Monsters University Blu-Ray Combo Pack on October 29th. Well, “we”, as in “me”, since it means I’ll get a chunk of quiet mommy/blogging time while he zones out to the movie. And this year, he’s finally starting to understand the significance of Halloween, and all the candy coming his way. So what better time to celebrate what will probably be his new favorite movie than some fun Mike Wazowski Felt Coasters to use at a Halloween party! (or dinner, or lunch, or snacktime, just to spice things up).
From the first movie, I was always pretty impressed at the animators’ ability to create so many facial expressions out of a character that was essentially an eye and a mouth mounted on a giant gumball. So, my set of 4 coasters features 4 different facial expressions! I did a quick search to see some sample images and drew out a few favorites, and then had to choose which 4 I wanted to use.
Supplies
green, white, blue, black felt
green, white, black sewing thread
black embroidery thread
regular sewing needle
large eyed needle
bowl or coaster to use as a form
scissors
Instructions
1. Use the bowl/coaster to make an outline for the coaster bases on the green felt. Draw and cut out 8 round green pieces. 4 of them will be the fronts and 4 will be the backs of the coasters.
2. Cut out 4 circles from the white felt. I used a circle paper cutter to create a 2.5″ diameter template and used that to draw the rounds on the felt.
3. Cut out the blue and black pieces for the pupil and irises of the eyes. This will depend on what expressions you are making, so you’ll either be cutting out circles or half circles.
4. Cut out mouth pieces from the black and white felt. This will also depend on the expressions you are making.
Now to start assembly. I’ll use the “dismayed” look as my example.
5. Sew the teeth onto the black mouth piece with the white thread.
6. Sew the white eyeball onto a piece of green felt with white thread, positioned towards the top of the green round.
7. Sew the black and blue eye pieces onto the white eyeball. Instead of sewing each piece on individually, I layered the pupil onto the iris and sewed an X directly through the black pupil with the black thread to secure it in place.
8. Sew the black mouth piece (with the teeth already attached) to the green “face” with black thread. This completes one face.
9. Layer the completed face with another green round and using the green thread, sew the two pieces together using a running stitch.
10. If the mouth is a line, use the black embroidery thread to create the mouth with a slip stitch.
The other faces are made in approximately the same way. Each piece on the face needs to be either sewn together first or sewn directly to the green face. Then the coaster is finished by backing it with the second piece of green felt.
I actually wanted to use a blue button for the yes, but then I couldn’t fit a glass or a mug on the coaster evenly, so that idea was scratched. It would have looked good though!
There are still a few days until Halloween, but we’ve been using our fun coasters to get ready for a holiday filled with “punkins”, superheroes, monsters, candy, and costumes. We might even attempt trick-or-treating this year, if he doesn’t completely wig out and melt down. He does understand the importance of candy these days, so it looks promising so far!
If you’re an eager beaver and want as much Monsters University as you can get your hand on, you can:
So sweet! I have yet to see Monster’s University, though I loved the first movie!
These are ADORABLE!! I love love love the different faces you used! I bet your little guy loves them to pieces! 🙂
These are so cute! Great job!
These are so cute! I love Mike Wasowski! 🙂
So cute! Love all of the different Mike facial expressions you captured!
I love that you captured Mike’s personality – all of them! – in these coasters! Pinned!
These are adorable! I love all of the different expressions that you captured!
SO SO adorable! My kiddos would go crazy over these! And probably use them as frisbees haha!
These are fabulous! I totally LOLd when I saw them. They are great.
So adorable! The proportions are great too.
ChiWei, this is soooooo clever! I love working with felt, and if I had a little one, I’m SURE we’d be making these stat. You’re right – – it’s amazing how many expressions those little monsters have despite their limited facial features. You really captured 4 unique ones!
Ha, I was hoping no one would be offended when I called Mike a gumball with eyes. At first, I thought I’d make one with different removable faces, and hang them from my neck or something to warn people off if I was in a bad mood, but figured coasters was more palatable to the public 🙂 Who says you need kids to make these – they’d probably make great passive-aggressive warning signs at mealtimes!
Thanks Carissa, I’m glad you like them!
The proportions are what made them so easy, Jill! Just one big eye and one big mouth, and no need to worry about details! Thanks for you sweet comment!
Kimber, that would be awesome – make them a little bigger and throw them around like frisbees! My son hasn’t figured out he can throw them yet, he just thinks they’re funny faces. Thanks for stopping by!
Every time I see a reference to that name, I hear how Boo said it in the first movie 🙂
Yup, he does, Kadie! “Where are my green mikes?!” as soon as he comes home from school. Although he doesn’t do much with them except count them and laugh and then loses interest 🙂
These are totally adorable!! I love the other eye too, but yeah… that wouldn’t be good for your cup. Love how they turned out!!
These are totally awesome , and ridiculously cute!!!
These are SO cute!! Love the different expressions… LC would flip for these!
ChiWei these felt coasters are so much fun! I LOVE ALL of them!
haha – I love these little coasters,..they’re adorable and might actually get the kids to use them.
Those are so cute! I love Mike’s different expressions!
Seriously adorable! I love how you’ve captured so many of Mike’s faces!
Thanks Rachel!
Wow, angry Mike Wazowski looks super! Well done!
Thanks Kate!
thank you so much for the idea and tinspiration – I made Mike Wazowski key ring charm for my friend who adores the guy :)))
http://kukunariss.tumblr.com/post/103270047617