Coffee Filter Flower

Recently I came across these little recycled treasures.  Today’s post is a paper flower tutorial.  Call the Cabbage Roses, peonies, whatever….they’re GORGEOUS!!!  The instructions on how to make them was a bit vague, and complicated.  I’ve been doing some snooping…and discovered that this is the way that I prefer making them.  I’ve done this for a long time with tissue paper, I’m not sure why coffee filters hadn’t occurred to me before!  The one at the beginning is from plain white filters, but in the tutorial I soaked them in tea to age them a bit.  If you prefer a paler tea color dilute your mix a bit….mine was VERY strong!  There are so many things you can change and personalize about these.  The size, the fluffiness, the color, heck…you could even change the shape a bit!.  I used about ten filters…but this is strictly preference.  You can even use recycled filters if you’re REAL ambitious! Talk about a recycled treasure. 🙂

 

For a coffee filter flower the size of mine, you’ll need:

10 coffee filters for each flower…white, or dyed to your preference.

scissors

floral wire, one stem for each flower

floral tape.

Separate and smooth your filters the best you can….it really won’t hurt even if you don’t smooth them…it just made it a bit easier to fold them.  Begin by folding in half.

 

and half again

 

I folded mine like this…and then alternated with ones that I folded one more time.  With each one….progressively cut each one slightly smaller than the one before.  When you finish….you should have a pile that looks somewhat like this.  Making these coffee filter flowers is soooooo simple!

 

Take your floral wire, and curl or bend it slightly on one end, so that the filters don’t slide off.  I then covered the loop with a bit of floral tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start with your smallest filter, sliding it from the untaped end of the wire upwards toward the bend.

 

 

Twist the base of the filter and repeat several times.  After two or three stop and wrap the base with floral tape, one or two rounds is all you need…just to secure it.

 

Continue puncturing and twisting the rest of the filters.  When they’re all on, wrap the base and slowly wrap the whole wire all the way to the opposing end.

 

Fluff and enjoy this awesome coffee filter flower! 🙂

 

I did some experimenting with colors…this is what I found:

 

 

This is food coloring and water.  I took the filters and just dipped them.  Clearly you could soak them like I did my tea dyed filters….I wanted to see what just the tips dipped would look like.  My colors were fairly diluted, maybe one drop per 1/2 cup of water.  Just play…it only filters….and you can blow dry them…and redye them if you want more intense colors….I prefer starting out a little light.  LOOK at that gorgeous pale pink!  I also found the the tea dyed filters didn’t really want to show the colors much.  The more intense ones did….and I have VERY dark tea dyed filters.  I would imagine lighter on the tea….would result in the colors showing up more.  ANYHOO….here are the more intense colors.

 

 

No….my pan isn’t dirty!!! Stop that!!!  It’s from the tea dying earlier! lol  This is what they look like dry!

 

I still think the pale pink might be my favorite!  Can you imagine a whole bouquet of these sitting on a bedside table….or the prettiest cottage style dining table? ahhhh to DYE for! (pun intended!) These make cute reusable bows for presents also!  You could also use them to make these gorgeous poof-balls.

Do you have some good decorating ideas for these little lovelies? What color will your little beauties be? How many of these coffee filter flowers could you make in a month with your recycled filters?

Love Y’all!