A little gift…

I really enjoy putting gifts together for people. 

I made some beautiful coffee filter peonies for a gift this last week. I gave them to the kids teachers for teacher appreciation.  I also made some for a few of my girlfriends for Mother’s Day.

It was a little time consuming; but I enjoy creating so it was worth it.

What you need:

small coffee filters

large coffee filters

green floral tape

floral wire

food coloring

vinegar

a deep pan

cooling rack over a cookie sheet

dryer

pots

potting soil

I really wanted to try dying the coffee filters. I have seen it done all over Pinterest.  What held me back was that everything I seen had people hanging and drying coffee filters over their house for days.  I found a tutorial where she put the filters in the dryer.  That changed everything for me, so I gave it a go.

I used this video tutorial for dying the filters.  She does a wonderful job showing you how to do it.  It is worth watching.

Here is my version in simple Andrea terms.

1. put cold water, 4 T. of vinegar and your choice of food coloring in a deep pan.  (I followed the back of the food coloring box to get the desired color) 

2.  Separate your coffee filters.  You need 5 large and 5 small to make each peonie.  I dyed the sizes separatly so that I knew which were which.

3. Submerse all of your small coffee filters in the dye.  Use tongs to swish them around.  Let sit 5 minutes.

4.  Pull out the filters.  Squeeze out the extra dye over the dish of dye.  You can do this to a whole bunch at once.  Lay them on the cooling rack.

5.  Separate the filters and place them in your dryer.  Dry for 15 minutes.

6. Repeat with the larger filters.

So Easy and beautiful.

Once they were dyed; I followed this tutorial to make the peonies.  She does a beautiful job of explaining it, so I will not repeat.

These were time consuming.  I found it easiest to do them in a production line.

 

Cut them all first, and then put them all in the wire and wrap next….and so on.

Once all your peonies are finished, I filled my little buckets with potting soil. 

Then I arranged the peonies.

I attached a sweet little tag with ribbon, and they were ready to give as gifts.  Our kiddos also wrote the sweetest note of appreciation to their teachers.

This project took me about 4 hours.  I made 18 peonies. 

I love how beautiful they are and so I made some for myself as well.

I currently have them in a vase with potting soil, but once we move I plan to use the crystal water to give the illusion of water in a vase.

I have found that stuff does not move well in the heat; so I will wait.

I also love how these flowers look on this piano, and want to recreate this same idea in our new home with my new coffee filter peonies.

source

These would be a great gift to lift the spirits of a friend because they are flowers that don’t die.

I can’t wait to dye more coffee filters and come up with some more projects.

For more gift ideas from JandA&Co; go here.