My DIY Coffee Filter Bouquet

Today I'm bringing you a DIY tutorial from my amazing Matron of Honor! I thought it would be best to share this before I got into recaps. You see, at my bridal shower MOH N was hoping to make me a traditional ribbon bouquet to use for my rehearsal, but only one gift was wrapped with ribbon. The rest were cards or gift bags. My wonderful MOH decided that just wouldn't do! She took it upon herself to make me a bouquet for my rehearsal out of coffee filters. I loved it and I asked if she would share her tutorial with the hive! So here it is from MOH N!

The finished coffee filter bouquet!

First Gather your supplies!

-Coffee Filters
-Water
-Acrylic Paint (How ever many colors you want. I used orange and blue)
-Straws
-Green electrical or masking tape
-Blow Dryer (optional but it helps)
-Ribbon
-Pearl Pins

The supplies. (Minus the wooden dowels. Didn't end up needing those)

The first step is to put some paint in a bowl and add water.  

When you add the water you want to make it the consistency of milk.

Next you start dying the filters! You can soak up to 20 filters at a time. Just make sure the paint has soaked through to all the filters.

After you have throughly soaked the filters, wring them out in an extra bowl or over the sink. If the color has turned out darker than you had wanted you can rinse it out a bit under cold water. 

Next you want to separate all the filters and lay them out to air dry.

Once I had finished dyeing all the filters I used the blow dryer to speed up the drying process.

Once they have dried you cut a spiral into each filter.

     You can cut about three at a time.

After you cut your spiral you pull out a strip of your green tape. Beginning with the center of your spiral start sticking it to the tape. You need to bunch and fold the filter while sticking it to the tape. The bunching and folding help to make the flowers look a lot fuller. 

Sticking the filter onto the tape

Soon it will look like a flower!

Next take the beginning of the tape and attach it to the straw. You make the flower by rolling the tape onto the straw. You'll see in my pictures that I did not continue the tape down the straw. This was because I wanted to leave a little bit of the pink visible, but if you wanted to hide the straw color you could continue the tape further down.

Finished flower after rolling it onto the straw

After you've made all your flowers you can start arranging them. Once you've arranged them the way you like wrap a strip of tape around the straw bunch to hold them in place. Then you'll want to cut the straws at the bottom to make them flush with each other. After you've cut the bottom of the straws, add tape all the way down to give the bouquet some strength. 

Next you can add your decorative ribbon and pearl pins. 

I added two extra pins at the top to hold the ribbon in place.

 Adding more pins along the front 

The finished bouquet from the top

The bouquet in action at the rehearsal! 

Thanks MOH N for the great tutorial and for making me such a special bouquet for the rehearsal! 

What about you hive? Did you/will you have the traditional ribbon bouquet for your rehearsal or something different?

All photos are personal