Coffee Filter Flowers

So here is a craft that that I did when I was little.. coffee filter flowers. You start off with a coffee filter decorated however you like. Color it with markers, soak it in some watered down acrylics, leave it white... I painted mine with watercolors. 

Fold in half.

Roll that up.

Twist the tip.

Then just open it up and form the flowers.

You could stop right there. I wanted to put mine into a dollar store vase so I twisted some wire around them to form a "stem".

Then I repeated a whole bunch of times. It took about 15 for me to get a full vase. This is easy to do with kids as well. You can have them decorate the coffee filters and if they are old enough you can have them make the whole flower.

-Karen

Heart Wreath

I have no Valentine's Day decorations. Actually, my husband and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day like most people do. No presents, no Valentine's Day date, just a "happy Valentine's Day. I love you." So when it comes to decorations I am certainly not going to spend money. Instead I grabbed cardboard, coffee filters, some acrylic paint, and my glue gun.

First I cut out out a heart shape. Really you could make one of these for any holiday. Just white for winter, a green shamrock for St. Patrick's Day... but for now a heart.

Next, I took a ton of coffee filters. I filled a container ~1/2 inch with water. Then stirred in a small amount of paint. Taking clumps of approximately 25 coffee filters I dipped the ends into the paint. I did each clump for a different amount of time so some were pail pink, others were darker pink. I let them sit for a few hours to dry.

Then I had to take all the coffee filters and pinch them in the middle.

A little twist at the end and you have a coffee filter puff.

Then start gluing.

And gluing.

And some more gluing.

Until your wreath is an full as you would like it. From there you can add a ribbon and hang it. Or add any other decorations to it that you would like.

-Karen

Oogie in the Window

Continuing on with my odd obsession with Nightmare.. 

I cut a silhouette out of cardboard.

Then I applied glue to one side.

After that I laid on a piece of burlap.

Then I repeated on the other side. To finish the edges I put hot glue on the corrugation and folded over the excess burlap.

Then I just trimmed off the extra.

Here he is completed.

In the window with light shinning through the other side he looks like the shadow on the moon at night...

-Karen

Jack Candy Dish

Since it is almost Halloween I have been on a kick of making some new decorations. The Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favorite movies. It seems odd to have have things from that movie hanging around all year long so Halloween seems like the perfect excuse to show my love.

I have done a few different projects now but I am starting with the easiest. A Jack candy dish. Which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

This one is really simple. I had a fish bowl laying around. I masked off the eyes, nose, and mouth. Then a quick spray with a frosted glass spray paint. Quick and easy.

This isn't too in your face. If I really wanted it to stand out I would have painted it white. Or maybe painted the eyes black. I think it is perfect.

-Karen

Embroidery Floss Holders

I had a bunch of floss getting tangled together. I needed to make some new holders for them. I had them wrapped around pieces of index cards but they just weren't holding up.

I decided I was going to go with animals. I found some free coloring pages of animals online. I stuck with longer animals. Really you could use anything here. You could go for pictures of forks and wind you floss around them. Or go more traditional with empty spool pictures. Find the pictures you desire, print, and cut them out.

Scotch makes these cool little self laminating pouches. I am not commit ed to laminating anything enough to buy a lamination machine so these are a nice substitute when needed. They are basically a thicker piece of plastic and sheet of clear vinyl that get stuck together.

You arrange your pictures on the one side.

Then fold over the clear sticky side. Smooth it down to remove any air bubbles.

After that cut out each individual picture. You will also need to create a little cut in to hold the end of the floss.

After that just wind your floss around. Below you can see my fox and pig wearing their little sweaters of floss.

-Karen