Valentine's Wreath

I've jumped on the band wagon. The coffee filter band wagon that is. I have wanted to make something with coffee filters for a while and decided a Valentine's wreath would be the perfect first project.

Now I've seen these done a few different ways. You can use foam wreaths, straw wreaths wrapped in plastic or a cardboard cut out. I fully intended on using a foam wreath but for some reason or another I could not make it to the craft store to get one and I really didn't want to spend any money.

So I used a box from Costco, you know the ones they put all your "smaller" items in? Is using Costco and smaller in the same sentence kind of like an oxymoron? I used my biggest mixing bowl to trace the outside of the circle and a smaller bowl for the inside. Just a little tid bit: It's important to trace your big circle first, then you can center your smaller circle inside. Sounds like common sense and maybe it is, but I had to trace mine twice. See the off center circle on my cut out? Oops.

Putting this wreath together was super easy, I had my three little chicks help. First we separated about 75 flat bottom coffee filters. Next we used the eraser end of a pencil, placed it in the center of the bottom of the filter and gathered the filter up, kind of like a flower. Does that make sense?

This next part was the fun part for my chicks. Remove the pencil, keeping the filter gathered and use red craft paint to paint the edges of the filters. If there was a little too much paint we dipped the paint into red glitter for a little sparkle. This was so nice because my girls could kind of go crazy, I wasn't concerned about too much paint or staying in the lines. They could paint them the way they wanted.

Once the paint dried I used hot glue to attach the coffee filter to the cardboard circle. It helped to put the eraser end of a pencil back in the center of the painted, glittered filter. Then all I had to do was put a spot of hot glue on the filter and press it onto the circle.

After all the coffee filters were in place I hot glued this little glittery, beaded heart in the center.

Here is the finished product. I like how it's a little inconsistent and the sparkle isn't all over so it's not too blingy. What do you think?Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths, Fingerprints on the Fridge, CSI