making coffee filter flowers.

this is kind of an exciting day. at least in the decor side of my brain. i have finally sort of kind of maybe pinpointed a favorite style! yikes! i feel hesitant to pick one style because i don't want to get boxed into one kind of style and never be able to find my way out... you know what i mean. but holy cow listen to me. you must click this link and check out this style i have realized i am totally in love with. seriously. click it, then come back. i mean it. you won't be sorry.

see what i mean? oh. my. goodness. gracious! so i have realized i looove the style of mixing rustic and romantic pieces together. i mean, some exposed beams with a crystal chandelier is like heaven to me. i just love the two opposites working together to balance each other out. i think it's pretty close to french country style, which makes sense. but it's kind of exciting because i thought i just liked what i liked and didn't really have a sense of direction. now i have one and it's nice. not that i'm going to run right out and make my entire home "fit" this style, but i just like having a favorite, you know?

so this being the case i thought i should go about mixing some romance with some rustic-ness (no, i couldn't think of a better word, sorry) to celebrate my new found love for this style. recently i collected these from outside when i de-red-ified our living room

i mean, let's be honest. this is already pretty feminine but i wanted a little bit more. so i decided to make flowers for a few of the sticks. i am sure you have all seen at least one of the gazillion pictures out there of tissue poms. that is where i got my inspiration for this project. i thought of cutting the tissue paper down smaller and making tiny poms to go on the sticks, but then i remembered i had a bunch of coffee filters. they are already small and have scalloped edges which look more flower-like so i realized it meant much less work. always a plus. so here is what i did.

first i gathered everything i would need

yup. that's it.

then i took 2 coffee filters

stack them together and fold them in half

then fold it in half twice more

then glue along the bottom with glue and fold it over to make it all stay together

don't fold over too much or you won't be able to spread the flower out as much

then just fan it out like you would a tissue pom

then since my sticks are against a wall i just glued the flower to the front of the stick intead of facing toward the ceiling so i would see only the pretty part

if you wanted it to sit as a centerpiece or something you could just make another flower for the other side and glue the backs together so you wouldn't see the folded and glued ugly part

i made 3 big flowers and 1 small one. i made the small one by cutting the tops off of 2 filters and rolling them into a little rosette. simple.

hobbes like to help me whenever i am crafting on the floor.

see how cute and pretty? so easy. and i love it! it makes a big difference to me.

now my only challenge is to keep my style from getting too girly so my husband still feels at home... i'm sure he'll help keep me in check : )