Cut Out Coasters

Here's a gift that your children can take a hand in: a stack of drink coasters. Simply draw or paint artwork that would fit under glasses. Coming up with the designs is the fun part: little handprints to hold your drinks; drawings of animals, faces or flowers; or handwritten poems. Coat the designs on both sides with clear Con-Tact paper and cut them out with enough of a plastic margin to keep fluids off the table. Give them to grandmothers and neighboring hostesses, or send a stack to Uncle Pete for his dorm room. While we're on the subject, paper gifts of any kind make perfect quick canvases for kids' artwork. You can decorate luggage tags, grocery checklists, growth charts or a birthday calendar (your kids can even put their computer know-how to use in making them).