Coffee Filter Flower Bowls

I'm always a sucker for the re-imagined and the re-purposed. Few do it better than Martha and her team. I came across these coffee filter flower bowls at a child's birthday party I attended several years ago hosted by a friend of mine for her daughter. She had made them using all shades of blue and green and the effect was so striking. She had arranged them as a centerpiece on the table and filled them with candies. While she did not use this exact project as a template, the how-to is nicely articulated here. The reason I chose to blog about it, aside from its obvious springtime reference, is that it's a very easy project for kids to take part in. I always think it's nice to have ideas like this in mind if you have kids in your life. This craft project makes a very cost-effective and entertaining activity for young children, whether it's after school, at a children's event or at a birthday party. If you'd like to do the project yourself for an Easter table, there are no limits to how embellished and fancy you can make these little containers. See below for instructions:

MATERIALS:

Green and yellow food colouring (You could use any colour combination)
Wide shallow bowl or pie plate
Coffee filters
Paintbrush
Paper cups and paper bowls
Scissors
Hot-glue gun
(The paper cups and bowls for this project were ordered here.)

HOW-TO

1. Pour water with a few drops of food colouring into wide, shallow bowls. Dye a few filters completely green. Dip the open end of a larger stack of filters in yellow. Remove, and let dry while stacked upside down. (Note: Coffee filters hold their shape best when dyed in a stack.)

2. Using the paintbrush, paint cups with food colouring mixture. (Do some interiors, some exteriors, some both.)

3.  Separate dyed filters when dry. Fold 1 in half, and snip into fluted part every few inches. Trim snips into rounded petals. Continue to trim all filters this way, varying the type of petal shape: some rounded, some angular. Unfold. Cut green filters into leaf shapes, making sure they are large enough to be seen once fastened to the bottoms of the flowers.

4. If desired, layer several flower-petal filters on top of each other to create a more lush and full flower. Use the glue-gun to attach them.

5. Glue cups to centers of filter flowers. Glue green leaves to underside of filters.

In the photos above, several examples show layers of the flower petal filters have been glued to the insides of the paper bowls to create a varied effect once a group of them are assembled on a table. Fan out the layered petals and paint the centers a deeper shade of yellow. Click here for a variation on the same project: coffee-filter water lilies!