Coca-Cola Black Forest Brownies & DIY Basketball Coasters Tutorial

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FinalFourPack #CollectiveBias  Coca-Cola is a corporate champion of the NCAA.

We have a great time getting together with a group of friends every other week.  We talk and we eat.  Us ladies enjoy crafting together and the guys…well they talk and watch sports and right now they are in the thick of watching NCAA® March Madness.  So I thought it would be fun if I brought along some cans of Coca-Cola all packed up with crafted Basketball Coasters when we get together this week, along with some Coca-Cola Black Forest Brownies for us all to enjoy.

I’ll start with the brownies.  They really are so simple to make.

Coca-Cola Black Forest Brownies

Ingredients

1 13×9″ pan size boxed brownie mix
1 can of Coca-Cola Cherry
1 tub of prepared whipped cream cheese frosting
6-oz of frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed and quartered

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees (Or to the temperature stated on the brownie box packaging for the type of pan you are using if different)

2. Add the can of Coca-Cola Cherry to the brownie mix.  Stir until it is completely mixed.  The batter will be thin.

3. Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean when testing the middle of the brownies.

4. Allow brownies to cool.  Then spread the cream cheese frosting over the cooled brownies.

5. Top with the quartered cherries, pour the extra ‘juice’ from the cherries over the brownies if you like.

That can of Coca-Cola Cherry?  I found it in a four pack a special Coca-Cola NCAA® Final Four Pack available at Walmart, along with Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Vanilla.  This is a fun way to share Coca-Cola with your friends. These three four pack flavors can be purchased 4 packs (so 16 cans total) for $5 (in some parts of the country it may be 3 packs for $5) , or 2 packs for $3.00 (8 cans).  You couldn’t miss them at our Walmart they were right at the entrance when you walked in!

While I was waiting for the brownies to bake and cool, I thought I would make some Basketball Coasters.  These are easy to make too and will impress your friends as you give them one to set their Coca-Cola can down on!

DIY Basketball Coasters

Supplies

Round Coasters
Picture of a basketball in the diameter of your coaster OR Permanent Nut Brown & Black Vinyl
Scissors
You may also need:
Laminate or Acrylic Spray
Glue or ModgePodge
Two-way tape

Directions

For Silhouette or Cricut machine owners
Find a basketball file (the Silhouete one I used came free with the machine) or SVG, and make it the size of your coaster dimensions and then cut it out with your machine.

Once your basketball is cut and assembled place it on your round coaster.  The coasters (a package of 4 purchased for 88¢ at Walmart) I used had a cork inset, so I just put the vinyl right on top of that.  You may need to use the two way tape on the bottom of the cork to get it to sit flat on the plastic after putting the vinyl on.

Let sit 48 hours before using.

For Everyone else
Print off a picture of an basketball in the dimensions of your coaster.  Following the directions on the can, spray the picture with a laminate or acylic spray.  This will make the picture moisture proof.

Glue or ModgePodge the picture onto the coaster.

Let sit for 48 hours before using.

But basketballs need a net, right?!  And so with the bottom of a processed cheese loaf box, I found the perfect way to present the Coca-Cola cans to our friends, so they’d get one of each flavor, and have a place to store their coasters 🙂  Again, I just cut some simple shapes out of paper that I found online and glued them on to the box.

With the Coca-Cola NCAA® Final Four Pack available at Walmart it’s a slam dunk 😉

See more #FinalFourPack Fun on:
Twitter: @CokeZero & @CocaCola
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/cocacola/ & https://www.pinterest.com/cocacolazer0/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/cocacola & http://instagram.com/cokezero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CocaColaUnitedStates?brand_redir=1 &https://www.facebook.com/cocacolazero

Oh Yeah and be sure to check out the National Coke Zero Final Four Selfie contest. You can upload a selfie with a Coca-Cola product on the site below, and be entered to win 2016 NCAA Final Four tickets. Afterwards, you can go on the site to find your selfie and see all of the others!

Coca Cola #FinalFourPack Walmart Sweepstakes – $1,000 in Prizing