Easy Coffee Filter Flowers
It’s hard to believe these flowers are made out of coffee filters! For pennies you can make a beautiful flower bouquet that won’t wilt or fade. Best of all, these coffee filter flowers are SO EASY to make. They’re made from simple supplies (coffee filters painted with liquid watercolor paint and tied together with a pipe cleaner), and they’re super quick to put together. These DIY coffee filter flowers look amazing in a vase or mason jar. They make great homemade gifts, and they could also be used for as decorations for a party, baby shower or wedding.
Check out our Coffee Filter Flower video tutorial:
*Note: Scroll down for the step-by-step photo tutorial. Coffee Filter Hydrangeas Coffee Filter Dancers How to Make Coffee Filter Butterflies Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Here’s what you’ll need:
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Coffee filters Scissors Green pipe cleaner Liquid watercolour paint Eye dropper
Liquid Food Colouring – Add a few drops to a small amount of water and use an eye dropper to add it to your coffee filters. The only drawback is that the colour looks a little “flat” and consistent rather than having dark and light colour variations like the watercolour paint and markers. Washable Markers – Colour stacks of 2 coffee filters with marker, then add water to the coffee filter using an eye dropper. Washable markers work really well. The biggest drawback is that it’s time consuming to use them. You can only colour stacks of 2 coffee filters (you need 4 coloured coffee filters for each flower), so you have to colour twice for each flower. However, we found that washable markers made the PRETTIEST dark edges around the petals, so if you’re only making one or two flowers, markers might be a great option. (See our Coffee Filter Dancers for an example of coffee filters coloured with markers).
How do you get the dark edges on the flowers?
We got the darkest edges when we coloured the coffee filters with Crayola Markers, rather than using liquid watercolours (the flower in the photo above was coloured with markers). The liquid watercolours are WAY faster and still give you nice edges, so we still prefer it for these flowers – especially if you plan to make a bouquet.
What can be used instead of pipe cleaners?
If you don’t have a pipe cleaner or if you want your flowers to look more realistic, you can make your flowers with floral wire and wrap the stem in floral tape.
If you have a hot sunny day, you can set your wet coffee filters out in the sun to dry which takes about half an hour (just be careful if there’s wind!). Or if your oven goes down to 130F you can dry them in the oven which takes about 20 minutes. Do NOT dry them in the oven unless you can get the temperature down to 130F.
Do I really need 4 coffee filters per flower?
If you’re making your coffee filter flowers with kids, you can make them with 2 coffee filters. The flowers don’t look as full, but for young kids and preschoolers especially, it’s easier for kids to manage fewer coffee filters. If you’re making your coffee filter flowers as a party decoration or gift, they really do look the fullest and most beautiful with 4 coffee filters. These flowers look AMAZING when they’re finished – just like peonies! They almost don’t look like they’re made from coffee filters, but the process is super simple. Wouldn’t they look cute on your desk or counter? People may not even notice they’re fake!
Here’s even more coffee filter craft ideas:
Coffee Filter Hydrangeas
Coffee Filter Dancers
How to Make Coffee Filter Butterflies
Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
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