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On to the tutorial, shall we?
Many months ago, I made these versatile coffee filter flowers with friends. Elsa brought all the supplies and we made tons. I made enough to decorate Penelope’s birthday party and my Christmas tree. With very little effort. I believe in all, my collection of flowers took 4-5 hours to make. When you batch it with friends, you can make even more! The great thing about these is once they’re made, they last forever and you can use them for just about any occasion. Add some fresh foliage from the yard and you’re good to go!
Or stick them in a pot with succulents for a little added color. Here’s how you do it:
Coffee Filter Paper Flowers DIY
First, let’s grab materials to dye the coffee filters. Since you’re not really laundering the flowers, you can dye them with anything. Dye with Rit, watercolor, heck I’m sure you could use food coloring. I like how permanent my results with Rit were. If you want more granulation and variation in the dye, use powdered dye.
SUPPLIES for DYEING:
- Rit liquid or powdered dye
- Coffee filters
- Gloves
- Basin
- HOT water
I love using those hospital bed pans. They’re easy to come by and it doesn’t matter if you stain them with your dye. Also, the hotter the water, the faster the dye process.
Fill the basin about 1-2″ deep, you don’t need it super deep, with the hottest water you can get from the tap. Add dye. If you want a muted color, add about 1 tablespoon of dye. If you want it more saturated, add more! Pull off a section of 20 or so coffee filters. If you want more color variation, use larger chunks of filters in the dye bath. Dip in and pull out. The longer you soak them, the more consistent the color will be from filter to filter. So I like to pull them after soaking for about a minute. Separate filters and place on a towel to try. For quicker dry times, you can put them on your heater vents (if it’s winter), or out in the sun (if it’s summer).
Now to make the flowers, you need:
- Wire cutters
- Scissors
- Jute Wire
- Liquid glass (or hot glue gun)
Fold your filters in half. Then in half. Then in half. THEN in half again! Cut a round or pointy end. Then halfway down, do it again. These two pieces will be for flower steps 1 and 2.
Cut the second filter the same way. Add feathering if you’d like with multiple cuts on one or all of the pieces. More feathering, more volume it will have. Cut to the center on one side.
Grab the smallest piece and add glue to one side of the slit. Roll it around your wire stem and hold in place. Bring the rest of the petals around and glue securely.
Grab the second largest piece and glue one edge. Hold in place to allow glue to set. You’ll gather and pinch the bottoms of this layer together as you glue to add more fullness to the flower.
See the difference between the steps? It progressively gets more full. IF you want more volume, add even more layers!
For the last step, complete like the first. Add glue to the center portion of the coffee filter along the slit. Attach to the flower and wrap around. Glue as you go to secure in place.
Fluff out and add glue drops to the edges for dew drops!
Here’s a video detailing each of the glue steps:
There you go! Enjoy!
