Coffee Filter Paper Flowers

Hello my name is Laura. First time instructable long time crafter so please bear with this nube...
Um, errr so yes these are my coffee filter paper flowers/ pomanders!

I like using the coffee filters over the tissue paper as its a bit stronger, they give a pretty off-white shade, they are pre-cut (because I'm lazy like that) and BONUS they come in bulk. I picked mine up and the dollar store because I'm also cheap, err sorry thrifty lol.

*Nube mistake #1 I completely forgot to take a picture of the Styrofoam balls I used as a base, but y'all know what Styrofoam balls look like so I think I'm still ok. Go with the smallish to medium sized ones because the coffee filter itself adds quite a bit of size. I guess I should give you a list so here goes....

MATERIALS:

-Coffee filters If you haven't figured out that's a needed item yet, then we may be in trouble lol

-Small to Med Styrofoam balls

-Hot glue Gun

-Hot glue sticks

-Some sort of stick/ stick like item

I used bamboo skewer, small paint brush handle would work as well, your creative I'm sure you can think of something

Step 1: Making Flowers

This whole thing is a very easy process just time consuming..

This would be a great time to TURN ON GLUE GUN

Take out a filter fold in half.

Start at one end an roll towards center .. VOILA! one small flower!

Step 2: Prepping Flowers

So here's a tip, I found it a lot easier to prep a crap-tonn of 'filter flowers' first before attaching them to the ball. And yes crap-tonn is a legit form of measurement. I could give you a number but Id be making it up, so eyeball it out.

To keep the flowers from un-rolling add a wee bit of hot glue part way down the ... erm, middle of the outer petal? not sure how to precisely explain so I put a blue 'X' on the picture. Your welcome.

**IMPORTANT (learn from my mistakes) the tighter? more tightly coiled? the flower the more you are going to need. Also when you are rolling the filters you will want to make sure that the paper is nice and flush from top view.. trust me you do not want to be trimming these things in the end.

Step 3: Prepping for Gluing.

Once you have enough flowers prepped, or you can do this step as you go too. You'll want to fold the bottom point of the filter up to make more of a flat bottom. Add a little bit of glue to keep fold closed.

Now were ready for glue to the Styrofoam ball!

Step 4: Ready to Glue!

Ok so here we are will a gazillion prepped filter flowers ready for gluing.

Oh right, I guess we should talk about the all important ball: ( of which I forgot to take pictures of )

There are a couple things to consider here with the ball. If you are going to be making a fully round pomander or a 3/4 version, like I had made (flat bottom better for table displays).

*If your going to want a 3/4 version, pretty straight forward your going to want to cut the bottom off of the Styrofoam ball so it can sit flat ** much easier to so this BEFORE you start gluing the flowers down.

START GLUING: start top center of ball add glue to your flat bottom of filter flower (BLUE 'X'). Stick to ball. Now this is were that stick comes in. I liked to insert the stick down center of filter flower and LIGHTLY push into the ball, for a few seconds to allow for hot glue to harden.

Step 5: Spacing

The next filter flower you will want to place approx 1-2cm apart. You can see an idea of spacing from the picture of the underside of my pomander.

Step 6: Final Touch

After my Styrofoam ball was covered I went around my the glue gun 'pinching' little sections together to close up any gaps.. areas indicated in blue.

Step 7: Annnnd There You Have It Folks COFFEE FILTER PAPER FLOWERS!

A very pretty final result.. makes a great alternative wedding table decoration, at the cost of less than $2 each great idea for party/ room decor.

I myself made a handful of these for my wedding, and have since been asked to make these for others.

Let me know what you think! Not bad for first tutorial, if I do say so myself :)