Coffee Filter Carnation Flower DIY

Two weeks to go and it’s Mother’s Day! I feel bad knowing that I won’t be able to celebrate it with my mom. It’s been 5 years already. All I can do is to wish that hopefully will be together as often as possible. But we are miles apart… ocean apart… and all I can do is only wish for it. But thanks to our technology anyways  for I am able to see and communicate with her online.

Now that Mother’s Day is coming, I guess a bouquet flower will be the best gift for her. Because she has no longer interest with material things. I noticed that when I went home for vacation last year. All her stuff (bags, jewelries, clothes) are gone. She just keep what she thinks is necessary for her.

Carnation Flower on Mother’s Day

Speaking of Mother’s Day and flowers, that reminds me of carnation. The first time I celebrated Mother’s Day here in Canada, I was wondering why we are giving carnation flowers to our customers. I thought it was the cheapest one. But then I learned later on that carnation is an emblem of mother’s love.

With that I  am inspired to make a carnation flower out of coffee filters. Why not? It’s long lasting than fresh flowers. At least it will bring blooms in your  house all year round, even during the most gloomy day during winter.

Coffee Filter Carnation Flower DIY

Materials

• Coffee filters
• Glue
• Floral tape
• Color to dye (watercolor, food coloring, or any dye that you think will work on coffee filter)
• Floral wire or paddle wire
• Strings (optional, only if you want to hang the flowers as a decorative backdrop)

Instruction

1. Cut about inch wide around the coffee filter to make strips. (I got mine from work. We had this wrong order of ginormous coffee filters so I trimmed the edges and saved it for future craft project.)
2. Dye the filters. I used food coloring to dye my filters with 3 drops of yellow and 5 drops of red diluted to 1 cup of water to achieve the peachy to somewhat pinkish color. The desired color is up to you. It’s about experimenting the proportion of colors. Also I left some area of the coffee filters strips not colored because I want the gradient effect  of the petal.
   
   
3. Fold floral wire into two. In the folded tip, insert one end of the coffee filter strip. This will be the center of the flower
   
   
4. Then crimp the edges of the coffee filter strips. To secure the strips put some glue and crimping going round.
   
5. When you get to the desired size, wrap the edge with floral tape including the wire.
   
6. If you want to create a string of carnation, you can cut the floral wire to create  stemless carnation flower. Use glue gun to stick it to the thread.
7. (Optional) Add some green foliage for more effect.

This craft is not only for mother’s day. This is also perfect for photoshoot set-up. Also a good backdrop for occasions like wedding and debut.