Gorgeous Coffee Filter Flowers Tutorial

Spring is in the air, and I am loving all the paper flowers I'm seeing all over pinterest. Of course, I had to make some. With my girls' help, we created these gorgeous coffee filter flowers. They're easy, and I love how something so simple turned into something so pretty. Keep reading if you want to dress up your home for Spring!

Whether you're planning ahead for Mother's Day, looking for a prop for photo shoots, or you just want to add a pop of color to your home, this is the perfect project for you. Let's get started!

Coffee Filter Flowers Tutorial

RELATED: Spring Frosted Rice Krispie Treats, Mosaic Turtle Craft for Kids

Materials:

• Coffee filters (2 per flower)
• Tissue paper cut to the same size as the coffee filters (1 per flower) I used a design with dark pink on light pink, but you could use a solid color.
• Green chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Watercolor paints (You can substitute food coloring for watercolor paint, but your colors will be very limited.)
• Large watercolor brush

Directions:

1. Fold each coffee filter into 8 sections. (Fold the filter in half three times.)
2. Cut a single petal shape from your folded filter. Don't cut the sides off. Just cut an arch shape off the top. (See image above.)
3. Unfold the filter and paint it with watercolors.  (Don't dilute the colors much at all. Put a very small amount of water in the bottom of a cup. Now wet your watercolor cake and fill your brush with as much color as possible. Put the brush in the cup of water and swish it around to add the color to the water. Add color a few more times, and then use your paint/water to paint the coffee filters. We used three colors and mixed them on the filters. (Red, dark pink, and purplish pink -- I just made that color up. Can you tell?)
4. Allow the filters to dry completely.
5. Fold your circles of tissue paper and cut them into flower shapes in the same way you cut the filters.

6. Snip a tiny hole into the center of each coffee filter and tissue paper piece.
7. Roll down one end of a pipe cleaner, and slide it into the hole on the first coffee filter. (Roll down about ½ inch. This forms the inside of the flower.)
8. Grasp the filter in your hand and fold it up (away from the stem). Squish it.
9. Add the tissue paper layer and fold up and squish.
10. Add another coffee filter flower and fold up and squish.
11. If desired, add a tiny bit of glue where the base of the flower and the pipe cleaner connect to keep the petals in place. (Don't glue if you plan to put the flowers in a vase. See more directions below.)

If you plan to put your flowers in a vase, you might want these items as well:

• One small glass vase (I got mine at The Dollar Store)
• Lime green drinking straws (mine are from a pack of blues and greens found at Walmart)
• 1 narrow plastic drinking cup
• 1 container of salt

The flowers are perfect as is for a photo prop or to lay the bouquet on it's side on a shelf.  If you want to put the flowers in a vase, you'll need sturdier stems.

For sturdier stems, cut the holes in the flower petals large enough to fit a drinking straw. Use the same method for creating the flowers as above, but slide the pipe cleaner inside a drinking straw before you add the flowers. Once you have shaped the flowers, add a bead of glue at the base of each flower (around the straw) and inside the petals (around the straw) so that the petals don't slide up and down the straw.

Place an upside down narrow plastic cup inside your vase, and then add the flowers. Pour a container of salt over the cup, and allow the salt to fill in the area around and above the cup.  (You can skip the plastic cup and just use more salt.  I chose to use the cup so that I didn't waste as much salt.)

Check back on Friday for a free Mother's Day printable to add to your vase.

*Update--The link to the printable can be found in this Paper Flowers Roundup.

Enjoy! (Now someone teach me to remember to focus the camera on my daughter so that she doesn't end up blurry in this kind of shot!) Don't those flowers just scream SPRING?

Thanks for stopping by today. You might like some of these projects, too. Images below are linked. Click on the image to visit the post.