White Coffee Filter Wreath

I have had a lot of "firsts" on my blog lately and here is another: My first Tutorial.  I know there are instructions all over the web on how to make these, but I will share my experience with it as I will be teaching a class on these at our Church Crafts Night this month.

 

First of all, purchase 2 pkgs of coffee filters, either in white or natural. As you can see, I have chosen white. I took two at a time and after separating them. I put them back together and folded them in half. Then I folded it into thirds.

Next I fluffed it out a bit, separating the layers to get more volume.

I decided I wanted my wreath to sparkle! (This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me). So I had a cup with Elmers Glue and a pan with fine silver glitter.

I dipped the filters into the glue and then into the glitter and gently shook off the excess. They effect was what I wanted, but I found that this process made the glue thicker than it needed to be and actually took about 4 to 5 hours to dry! I changed my method to using a fairly large brush to brush the glue on the tips of the filters and then dip it into the glitter and it dried much faster.

You will need a 16" or 18" foam wreath form for this project. The one I found was flat on the front and back so I trimmed some of the foam on the sharp edge on the front to give more of a rounded shape. It only took a couple minutes.  You will need to fashion a hanger on the back of your wreath. As you can see, mine isn't much to look at but it does the job.

Some people suggest using a glue gun, but I used straight pins with a little ball on top and I highly recommend it. It gives you the opportunity to re-position your little "filter florets" if you are not happy with how it's looking. I recommend starting on the outside edge and do the entire row before moving on to the next row. Once I had the first two rows looking good, I did take my glue gun and put a little dab at the base of each "floret" for stability. It gets a little tricky once you get to the last row on the inside of the wreath, but if you will pin the first one with the wreath flat on a table, then you can turn it over and do the rest by lining them up behind the first one. You will see what I mean when you have it in front of you. I used an 18" wreath form and I took 5 rows to fill it in to a very nice fullness. I didn't want a "pleated" look, necessarily. I wanted it to look more like closely clustered flowers and I think that's what i got.

This gives you an idea of the fullness. I love the glitter effect, but here is what I would do next time if I want the glittered look. This would save a LOT of time. Wait until you have all the "florets" pinned on. THEN, use a 3" paint brush to lightly brush on the glue to the finished wreath and then sprinkle on the glitter. Shake it off onto a large piece of paper so you can harvest the left over glitter. I think if you do this in about 4 sections, you will get a great look.  My daughter-in-law made a wreath out of the brown, natural colored filters and it was a very cool, but very different look. I will show that in my next post.  See you soon!