by Debbie Chapman
Jump to Instructions
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
These coffee filter flowers are SO PRETTY! This simple craft is beautiful enough for adults, but easy enough that kids can make them too. They make beautiful party decorations and are also a great gift idea for teachers or Mother’s Day.
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.
Looking for more coffee filter crafts? Here’s some of our favourites:
Coffee Filter Hydrangeas
Coffee Filter Dancers
How to Make Coffee Filter Butterflies
Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Here’s what you’ll need:
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a small commission which helps us run this website.
The full printable instructions are at the end of this post, but here’s a list of products on Amazon and Target that are similar to the supplies we used:
How to Make Coffee Filter Flowers
These coffee filter flowers are SO PRETTY and they're really easy to make! They make beautiful gifts, party decorations, or flower arrangements.
Materials:
- 4 Coffee filters
- Liquid watercolour paint (at least 2 colours)
- Water
- Green pipe cleaner
Equipment:
Instructions:
Step 1: Prepare the coffee filters
Make a stack of 4 coffee filters.
Fold the coffee filters in half and then in half again. Fold the coffee filters in half one last time.
Cut a rounded petal shape across the wide edge of the folded coffee filters.
Unfold the coffee filters and place the stack on a baking tray. Use your hands to press them out so the pile lies flat.
Step 2: Colour the coffee filters
Add 2 tablespoons of water to a small bowl. Repeat in other bowls for additional colours (1 bowl per paint colour).
Add liquid watercolour paint into the water.
We used 10 drops for yellow, 2 drops for red (to make a pink), and 4 drops for orange.
Using an eyedropper, add yellow to the center of the coffee filters. (They should still be stacked in a pile of 4 coffee filters.)
Again using the eyedropper, add another colour (or several colours) to the petals of the flower.
Allow the coffee filters to dry for 3 to 5 hours. (Or 20 minutes in the oven at 130F.)
Step 3: Shape the flower
Separate the coffee filters into 2 piles with 2 coffee filters each. Adjust the top coffee filter so that the petals are off-set from the bottom coffee filter.
Place your finger in the center of the flower, then bring the coffee filters up and around your finger. Pinch and twist them together a bit at the bottom.
Repeat for the second pile of coffee filters.
Bring the two bundles together at the bottom.
Place the end of a pipe cleaner about 1/2 inch from the bottom point of the coffee filters.
Tightly wrap the pipe cleaner around the coffee filters spiraling down until it covers the bottom point. Leave the rest of the pipe cleaner straight as the stem.
Separate the coffee filters and shape them to look like a flower.
Your coffee filter flower is complete!
Do I have to use liquid watercolor paint?
We found liquid watercolor paint (available on Amazon or at craft stores) was the quickest and easiest to use because it goes through the full stack of 4 coffee filters. But you can definitely use food colouring or markers to colour your coffee filters.
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?
The secret to getting dark edges around the flower petals (which is my FAVOURITE part) is to cut the coffee filters into the flower shape before you colour them. Also, the darker your paint colour, the darker the edges will be.
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.
How can I dry the coffee filters faster?
The coffee filters will take about 3 to 5 hours to dry – longer if you added more water or watercolor paint. When we laid ours over a drinking glass or mason jar it only took 1.5 hours for them to dry.
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 bookLow-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!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon |Barnes and Noble | Books- A- Million | Indiebound |Indigo |Amazon Canada
More from One Little Project
About Debbie Chapman, the Author of this Post
I'm Debbie Chapman, founder of One Little Project and author of the book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids. I love creating fun and easy crafts and cooking up delicious recipes for my husband and 3 kids.
More by Debbie Chapman
Filed Under: Crafts for Adults, DIY, Kids Crafts and ActivitiesTagged With: adult activities, adult crafts, Coffee Filters, crafts for kids, gifts, homemade, homemade gift, kids activities, Kids Crafts, liquid watercolour paint, Mother's Day Gift Ideas, paper flowers, watercolor
Love to cook, bake, craft, create?
Join the e-club for the latest
