Coffee Filter Flowers

Coffee Filter Flowers | Mama Papa BubbaGracen and I have been spending a whole lot of time at the beach lately (yay!), but this afternoon, we finally got around to finishing off a fun little project we started days and days ago.

IMG 8942It began like this.  Coffee filters, coloured water, and a plastic dropper out, creative table-style.  Simply left out for her to discover and explore when she felt up to it.

IMG 8944Of course it didn’t take Grae long to find a table full of fun materials to experiment with.  Without hesitation, she began using her dropper to slurp up coloured water and spew it back out on the filters.

IMG 8960She really loved watching how the colours spread and mixed with one another.

IMG 8969So much in fact, that she fully covered upwards of 30 separate filters.  Thank goodness for a big laundry drying rack!  We placed the filters on the rack in our solarium, and they dried in no time.

IMG 9528After tucking them away for several days, we came home from the beach today {some of us still sporting our bathing suits and sandy fingernails} and dug them out for a quick pre-nap project.  We also gathered a pair of scissors, some long green pipe cleaners, and some short colourful pipe cleaners (regular pipe cleaners cut into thirds).

IMG 9530To transform our beautiful watercolour-y filters into flowers, we started by carefully folding them in half three times. 

IMG 9532Then Grae would give me some sort of petal description (‘long and skinny!’, ‘pokey like the rose bush!’, ‘big, big, big, big, BIIIIIIIG!’, and ‘you know…..like….ummmm….like the little circle circle ones?’ were a few) and I’d cut the curved edge to match.  I also snipped the very tip of the point off at this point too.

IMG 9534Then came her very favourite part – carefully unfolding the cut filter to reveal its shape.

IMG 9560IMG 9561Here are a few of the other shapes we came up with together.

IMG 9538Next, Grae would pick a small pipe cleaner, bend over the top so it was no longer pokey, and place the bottom through the tiny hole in the centre of the filter.

IMG 9539Then she’d bring the filter up around the pipe cleaner and pinch it at the base.

IMG 9567While she held it tightly, I’d wrap a long green pipe cleaner around the filter and short pipe cleaner to form the stem.

IMG 9568Fun, right?

IMG 9546Every flower turned out completely different from the last…

IMG 9571And by the end we had a beautiful bouquet of colourful flowers perfect for the mantle, a table centrepiece, or a Mother’s Day gift. 

♥ 

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4 thoughts on “Coffee Filter Flowers

  1. That was my favorite activity as a kid. When I was younger, my mother showed me how to build a butterfly with a similar process. I, later on, showed children I was teaching to how to make flowers like the ones you did. (For the butterfly, the coffee filter part is the same, but we also painted clothes clips, then glued/painted eyes on it and added antennae made with 2 pipe cleaners).

    We would attach our beautiful butterflies to the mosquito net in order to see it a bit :) There was less accidents in the house, plus it was gorgeous and colourful :)

    I did this craft many times for Mother’s Day. I think it really makes a great gift! It is lively, vivid and lovely (many letters are alike, haha)! What mother wouldn’t like to get that kind of bouquet for Mother’s Day?

    I really love what you do, I get so much inspired by your blog ! I also love reading about your life in Koweit, yet I still struggle to write it correctly… haha :)
    I’m teaching in first grade in Quebec, and I get so many ideas for my students! They are special-needs students aged from 7 to 10, so most of your craft and activities can be made with them :) Sometimes, I get new ideas based on the stuff you do.
    Well, that’s a long one… thanks for doing this blog, it is a wonderful resource for us teachers, and for mothers. I will definitely be on this website when I’ll be a mom… <3

    Much love to you and Grae :)
    You girls are wonderfully inspiring ! xxxx

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