STEP 1
Fill a bowl with water and set it in your sink. Pour a whole bunch of red food coloring into it. Make it a rich dark red.
STEP 2
Get your coffee filters ready.
You'll need 5 filters cut down to 3inches
And 5 filters at 3 & 1/4th inches
Trim about an inch off of the edge of the coffee filters.
Step 3
Soak the filters 2 at a time in the red water. Just leave them in for 30 seconds to a minute.
STEP 4
Then place them on paper towels to dry. Again you can stack them 2 at a time. And you can do layers. A paper towel, 2 filter, a paper towel, 2 filters etc.
Just let them on the paper towels till most of the extra water is soaked up. Them move them to a glass surface (or something that won't stain - unless you don't mind bleaching your counters after you are done) to dry out the rest of the way.
Once they are dry they will look like this.
Then you begin the folding process.
Fold in half
Then in half again
Then in half again
Then in half again . .. so a total of 4 times.
Next you will trim the top edges into a nice rounded form.
Then trim just a tiny bit of tip off
Then snip at the top edge that you rounded previously. Snip in V shaped patterns making it look ragged. If you would prefer a smooth look you can skip this step.
This is what it will look like once you are done with the trimming and you lay it out flat.
Next you will take a piece of floral wire and cut it about 11 inches long. Then bend a little hook at the end. You will also want some floral tape. Or you can also use regular scotch tape.
Slide the hooked end of the floral wire up through the center of the filter.
Squirt a small dot of Wood Glue onto the end of the wire.
Then take the filter and fold it around the glue dot. Twist and fold and make it all mushed together at the glue dot.
Next slide the next filter on over top of the first one. Do not quite and go do something else and hope to come back to it. The glue needs to be wet as you work.
Continue to add layers
See it's beginning to take shape! This is exciting!!
About half way through I used scotch tape and secured everything.
Then I continued adding layers.
I ended by securing it with floral tape.
A close up.
Here is the finished product!
I put them in a cake stand on my daughters dresser.
Aren't they just charmingly elegant!
You can also use them in tin. I put them in this tin tub, but I didn't think it looked quite as good in her room so they went back into the cake stand. But I still like both looks.
And since it was so easy to do the pink ones I decided that the white ones would be even easier. So I did several white ones to mix with the pink. They have such a refreshing pristine look!
It's that simple! Go and have fun!
Here is what you will need:1. Sharp Scissors
2. Coffee filters
3. Red dye
4. Floral wire
5. Floral tape/Scotch tape
6. Wood glue
7. About 30 min of your time.
