Put A Bird On It: DIY Coffee Filter Garland ... Guest Post by Laura of Lovely Wren

Hi Everyone! My name is Laura, and I blog about knitting, crafting and photography over at Lovely Wren. I've never done a blog swap before, so I'm thrilled to be trying it today for the first time. A big thanks to Daniela for having me :) I've come up with a sweet little DIY coffee filter flower garland to share with you today. It's somewhat time consuming, but easy to do, and gives you beautiful results! I made it to hang over my corkboard and brighten up my apartment, but it would also be great for birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers, or just about any kind of party!

First I'll talk about dyeing the filters, then I'll show you how to make the different styles of flowers I used, and finally I'll tell you how to the garland together. Ready? Let's dive in!

Supplies:

Coffee Filters - I used 40 total for a 5.5 garland
Red, yellow, blue, green, and purple food coloring
24 gauge floral wire
scissors

Dyeing the Filters: I used food coloring in water to dye my filters. I made yellow, lime green, pink, purple and light blue. A little water + dye goes a long way! I used 1/2 cup or so of water for each color (which gave me 15 - 20 filters in each color - way more than I needed for this project!) Here's how much food coloring to add to your water:

Lime Green: A few drops of green food coloring and one drop of yellow.
Pink: Two or three drops of red food coloring.
Light Blue: Just a few drops of blue food coloring.
Purple: I actually used purple food coloring. It was a little jar of gel - I dipped my finger in a couple times and then stirred it into the water. You should be able to find purple at Joann's or Walmart. (Trying to mix red and blue to make purple doesn't really work! I'd definitely recommend buying some purple instead!)
Yellow: A couple squeezes of yellow - I felt like I was really using a lot, but you don't get a nice, sunny yellow unless you do!

Making the Flowers: I used five different flower shapes for this garland. You can find step by step photos and written instructions for each shape below.

#1 - The Flat Pinwheel

Fold your coffee filter in half, and grasp it in the middle between your thumb and fingers.
Wrap the thumb and forefinger of your other hand around the base of the filter (you should be holding the coffee filter with both hands at this point, but I had to use one hand to take the photo!)
Tighten your thumb and forefinger, and pull the coffee filter down through them.
Still pinching the bottom tip of the coffee filter, pull the edges out and down into a circle.

#2 - The Scrunched Pinwheel

Same as pinwheel flower.
Same as pinwheel flower
Pinch about halfway up the base of the flower, and fold the edges down and out.
Crumple and scrunch the edges of the pinwheel to give it more texture. You can scrunch the whole top up in your hand and then gently push the edges back down. Don't push or pull the edges too hard after scrunching - you don't want to loose all that pretty texture.

#3 The Carnation

Same as pinwheel flower
Same as pinwheel flower
Grab about 3/4 of the way up the base of the flower
Scrunch the top, the fold and pull out just a little bit to create that ruffly carnation look

#4 The Loose Carnation

Same as pinwheel flower.
Same as pinwheel flower, but don't squeeze your thumb and forefinger into quite as tight of a circle.
Pull the coffee filter through your fingers very gently. You want to be creating a shape similar to the one shown in step 3 of the pinwheel flower, but you want it to be much looser.
Grip just a little ways up the base (as you can see in the third picture) and gently pull and run your fingers along the creases to smooth out the flower.

#5 The Rose

Cut a straight line in your coffee filter, from the edge to about the middle
Begin rolling one edge of the cut onto itself. You want to roll tighter at the bottom and looser at the top.
Once your tube is started, pinch at the bottom and continue wrapping/rolling the coffee around itself.
Keep rolling/wrapping your flower, always pinching it more tightly together at the bottom and letting the top edge roll loosely.
Finish rolling and pinch your rose tightly at the bottom.
Reach into the center and use your finger to curl the beginning a little bit tighter. Scrunch and pinch the top of the rose to give it some texture!

Making the Garland: Putting your garland together is really easy - just wrap wire around the base of each flower, continuing until your garland is the size you want it. You can bend and manipulate your wire into a more organic, wavy shape, or keep your flowers in a straighter line. A few tips and tricks are listed below.

It's easier to work with small sections of wire and flowers. I made 5 "mini garlands" and then connected them into one big piece
You only need to wrap the wire around each flower once or twice
For flowers like carnations, which have longer "stems" on the back side of the garland, you can snip off the excess filter and then flatten the leftover to help the flowers lay close to the wall
My garland was 5.5 feet long when finished. I used 39 coffee filters: 18 white, 6 purple, 4 each of green, pink, and yellow, and 3 blue.
I used the flat pinwheel shape the most, followed by the scrunch pinwheel. Then I threw in a few carnations, loose carnations and roses.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Please let me know what you think, either here, or you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+. You can also find me on Instagram and Pinterest :)

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You guys - how insanely talented is Laura?! I love this garland. You could do any color and use it for any occasion. The "loose carnation" one is my favorite!! Definitely head to Laura's blog, Lovely Wren, to follow her for more great ideas.

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