Coffee Filter Flowers Tutorial

This post was first featured on the now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!


DIY Day success! I have created the most amazingly beautiful flowers made out of coffee filters.

I love creating. Unfortunately, I have a terrible habit of not finishing what I've started. In the past, I have had amazing ideas for tablescapes, paintings, decorating, or organizing, but did not follow through. Either I got in way over my head or the project wasn't going exactly as I thought. So I would quit. I think that is the story for a lot of people, so I don't feel alone.

I have been trying out all different ways to create handmade flowers. I love flowers. Pink ones. Yellow ones. All flowers. I want to create fabric ones, paper ones, repurposed ones; any material is game.

The actual creating part is the hardest. I scour the Internet for great tutorials on flower making. Not all are good. In fact, most are bad. And not just bad, but awful. The final product itself is beautiful, but the creator's directions suck. If I can't fully comprehend the instructions, I won't make a beautiful flower. I've made many bad ones. And it's frustrating. I see pictures of amazingly beautiful fabric roses that are bright and puffy and perfect. I try to emulate that picture. And I fail. I make cute fabric flowers. But my final product isn't what I wanted.

Yes, part of the problem is my inexperience creating these flowers. But another part is the sorry instructions the creator gives. If the directions say to twist the fabric, I also would like to know how tightly. Because that greatly affects my finished product. I want to know details. I don't care how long the post is.

I want this tutorial to be perfect. I don't care if I get a single comment. I want my tutorial to help those who want to create but feel as if other tutorials always have a step missing.

If that's you, then welcome home.

I want to give credit where credit's due. Thank you Aunt Peaches for inspiring my project in the first place.


Your supplies:


1. Coffee filters in multiples of 5 - 1 flower can be made from 5 filters
2. Drinking straws - with or without bendy part.
3. Masking tape - I understand that green masking tape is available. In that case, omit #6
4. Washable markers - I used Crayola High and Low markers (double ended!)
5. Scissors
6 Floral tape - In case green masking tape is not available, like it wasn't for me.
7. Squirt/Misting bottle - filled with plain tap water
8. Hair dryer
9. Towels - things could get messy!
10. Glue - optional, just in case



Instructions

1. Separate and stack coffee filters by 5s. One flower is comprised of 5 coffee filters, so you must decide how many you want to create. Keep stacks separate at all times. You also want to decide what colors you would like your flowers to be. If you want plain white flowers, skip to step 3.


2. If you would like colored flowers, this is the time to get out the markers. Flatten out 1 filter from a stack and scribble all over one side of filter with a colored marker. I made thick scribbles simply to save time. More scribbles mean a darker finished color. I wanted very vibrant flowers, so I tried to cover as much area of the filter as possible. Repeat with each filter in a stack. Make sure to keep your stacks together.


3.Now it's time to get the sink ready. I had my water-filled mist sprayer handy, as well as the hair dryer and towel for messes.

These instructions only pertain to white flowers. If you are making colored flowers, skip to step 5. Soak plain filters in water then wring out excess water. While coffee filters are much more durable than tissue paper, it can still tear. Be careful!


4. Dry wet coffee filters with a hair dryer on warm heat. It should only take a minute or so to fully dry. Expect the filters to be a little crinkled. Place back in stacks of 5.


5. This step is for colored flowers. Take 1 filter from a stack and spritz it with water. Do not get the filter so wet that it is dripping, but enough to get the entire filter good and wet. The colors on the filter will bleed together. Ball the filter up in your hand and squeeze. Squeeze tightly to wring out excess water if you want a muted color. Do not wring excess water if you want a more vibrant color. Dry with a hair dryer as was done in step 4 with the plain filter. Keep your stacks in order!

Once dried, this is what my filters looked like.


6.
If your straws have a bend, snip it off like the picture above shows. Discard the short end.

Do yourself a favor and already have 5 strips of masking tape pre-cut before you begin assembling. They only need to be about 2 inches long.


7. To begin assembling the center of the flower, fold a filter in half, and then once more. The filter will look like the picture above. Folding helps you find the center of the circle.

Unfold the filter. Find the center and pinch.

Tightly twist the center as picture shows. I wanted to twist enough so that I had enough of the filter to secure to the straw.

Tape the twisted filter to the side of the straw to secure.


8. To create outer layers of the flower, fold a filter the same as done in step 7. This time, snip a tiny bit off the end of the filter. This creates a hole in the center of the filter.

Slide the straw through the hole in the filter. Begin twisting around the center filter until you are pleased with the way it looks. Tape the filter to the straw. Repeat with last 3 filters.

This is what my finished flower looks like. The lump at the base of the flower is all the tape I used. This is okay. I also added a long strip of tape down the whole length of the straw. If using green masking tape, this would finish the look. For those using floral tape, the masking tape down the straw helps with the floral tape sticking.

If using floral tape, wrap it carefully around the entire length of the straw.

Now you're finished!!



I added some green leaves to mine. I went through the same process of coloring and wetting and drying filters, except in green.

Now these will sit pretty on our kitchen table. I'm very proud of the work I did, so no one else should be afraid to try this tutorial. If you find an easier/better way to do something, go for it! Always take inspiration from tutorials and make it your own. But what I love about this particular flower is that imperfections are hardly noticeable!

Have fun making beautiful flowers for spring! Maybe the weather will take a hint!

Peppermint Bark: This Ain't Your Mama 's Christmas Candy

 This post was first featured on the now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!


I love peppermint bark. Christmas time, summer time, anytime. It is good. It's chocolaty and cool because of the mint. And it's pretty. You can dress it up for whatever holiday you want.

Versatile versatile peppermint bark.

I have my very own recipe for the stuff. I may be biased, but it's just as good as what you'll get in stores.

Ingredients:

2 packages of chocolate - 1 white and one milk or dark. These must be equal parts.
12 candy canes or 3 dozen peppermints
Canola oil
food coloring - optional


1. Line a cookie sheet this aluminum foil. Makes sure to smooth out any creases.


2. Unwrap peppermints and break into tiny pieces. Use a food chopper for grind the peppermints into a dust. There will be bigger chunks of peppermint still intact, but that's okay.


4. Melt milk or dark chocolate in a glass dish in the microwave. Add a drizzle of oil to the chocolate before microwaving which will help with lumps.


5. Pour the melted chocolate onto the foiled cookie sheet. Smooth out to edges and immediately store in the refrigerator or freezer.


6. Next, melt the white chocolate in glass dish, adding a drizzle of oil. White chocolate will keep its shape even though it's melted. At this time, I added a little bit of food coloring to make the white chocolate a light pink.


7. Take out the cookie sheet with the hardened milk chocolate and immediately and quickly pour the melted white chocolate on top. Sprinkle the top with the crushed candy, patting down as you go to make sure it sticks. Store back in fridge until hardened.


8. Once hardened take a dinner knife to chop bark into bite-size pieces. Store in airtight container in fridge.


Good. Good. Good. I decided to use some left over chopped dark chocolate to sprinkle on top of the bark with the peppermint.

Tint the white chocolate green for St. Patrick's Day. Blue for the 4th of July. Possibilities are endless. And endlessly satisfying.

After-Christmas Creations

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Hey bloggy world! I'm back from my intentional hiatus.

For realsies hiatus. I meant to take a break because I knew nothing would be going on during the first part of January. So pointless posts would abound. But I thought it best to save you all from the misery and just not write.

But now I'm back and I've had some time to think of post topics. But this one is going to be devoted to life from Dec 25th, 2010 to right. now.

Christmas was good. Jarred and I stayed overnight at Mom and Dad's because the snow was bad and we were to get together around 9 a.m. to open gifts. If you want to see pictures, I have them posted to Facebook. I don't feel like posting them here.

These past few weeks have been pretty boring. There hasn't been much for me to do. Scratch that. There hasn't been much that is necessary for me to do. Cleaning being one of those.

But this week has been pretty awesome!

On Monday, I made a cute little bed caddy for Jarred. Since the bedside table got moved over to my side, he doesn't have anywhere to put books, iPod, or tissues. Now, voila! He does. I didn't take a picture because the fabric isn't exactly manly. It's pink, blue, green, and yellow striped. But it's all I had!

Yesterday, I spent my day making a sweet little bunting for our bedroom door. Nothing really matches in our apartment, but dammit, it's cute.

I came across a super rounded bunting tutorial at Pickup Some Creativity. Here's my version:


I love it! It took me around 2 hours to make it start to finish. Make a Christmas one to wrap around the tree, make a colorful one for a birthday party, or just use it like Jarred and I do and stick it in a weird spot.

I have found a new blog to follow: Aunt Peaches. This woman is genius! I will be using her idea of coffee filter flowers and making some this weekend. I'm still a total Ashley Ann girl, but Peaches' use of flowers makes my heart sing.

Peaches totally gave me the idea to make another bunting for the living room. Using coffee filters. It may not be Valentine's Day, but we're thinking of leaving this sucker up all year round.


I've been talking with Mom about what it means to like the shabby chic look. But I'm not so sure that's what I'm after. I think I'm more going for a 'kindergarten chic' look. I'm just glad Jarred lets me do what I want.

Lastly, I had a very special project which involved some very old doilies. Ashley Ann should be proud.

Some of those doilies are older than dirt. I'm totally not saying I have family members older than dirt, just that the doilies are. I stitched them together to make a runner. I got the vintage apothecary bottles from Hobby Lobby. I'm thinking of dousing the pine cones with silver glitter.

And last thing I did today? Got my hur cut. To be honest, I've been really wanting a completely new style for a while. I've been dying to get a pixie cut, but I got a resounding 'NO!' from my sister when I told her. Bummer.

So I decided to go short, but not pixie short. I'll gradually go shorter. Maybe. Probably.

But either way, I look fierce baby!

See? Fierce.

I haven't had bangs since kindergarten. And I don't remember the last time my hair has been this short either. I got a good 6-8 inches cut off. It feels awesome. And I got a bunch of hair ripped off my bushy eyebrows. That didn't feel so good.

It's great to be back on Blogger in this new year and I hope this blogging year is as good as the past. Our 2 year anniversary is coming up in February. Hopefully MJH will have many more!