I'm Lexie and you know it: DIY Cocktail Stirs

For my latest project I made cocktail stirs for a wedding happy hour. There are many similar stirs for sale on Etsy, but I needed 300 and it seemed cheaper to try to make them myself. I like the way they turned out, and they were even quicker to make than I expected.


Two of the completed stirs

MATERIALS:

Craft (stock) paper
Printable stick paper
Hole punches of two varying sizes
Wooden cocktail stirs (flat)

You will also need basic knowledge of a computer draw program and ink printer.

I bought card stock paper and hole punches from Michael's. The hole punches I selected are an 1" plain circle punch and a 1 1/2" scalloped circled. The printable sticker paper was from Staples, and I selected a paper with no existing preparations (not label paper). The wooden coffee stirs are from a party supply store. Before purchasing stirs, consider the type of glass the stir will be used in. For cocktails, most stirs seem to vary between 5 inches and 8 inches. It is also helpful to find a stir that is flat.

STEP 1: CREATE PRINTABLE TEMPLATE

The first thing I did was to create the labels (icons) I wanted on the stir in a draw program on my computer. I used Open Office draw. I created a template of 1 inch circles (the size of the hole punch I bought) so that my icons would be the size I needed. In each 1 inch circle I drew the icon I wanted. For these stirs most of the icons were text, and one icon was a heart with was an autoshape provided by the program.

Icon template I made on Open Office (note: the cursor is on the heart auto shape)

STEP 2: PRINT TEMPLATE

The next step was to print the template on the sticker paper. Before printing the template, DELETE the circle outlines so they will not print. Also take caution that some colors may look too light on your finished stir. I had to change the peach I originally used to a dark blue.


Printed template

STEP 3: PUNCH OUT SCALLOPED CIRCLES AND ICONS

This is the fun part... using the hole punches! I used the larger hole punch on the solid colored craft paper to create the base of the stir.

I used the 1 inch hole punch for my icons. It can be hard line up the icons with the hole. I opened the bottom of my hole punch and used it upside down so that I could line it up where I wanted.


Turning the hole punch upside down will let you line up the icon

The punched circles

STEP 4: ASSEMBLE STIRS
Assembling the stirs is a simple process. I would lay out the base circles (larger punches) and then center the end of a stir on them. Peel the back of the sticker paper off of the icon circles, and use the icon stickers to hole together the stir. Make sure you press down the sticker hard to ensure it fully adheres to both the stir stick and to the card stock circle.