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How to Make Paper Flowers With Coffee Filters

updated Dec 19, 2019
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(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

Coffee filter flowers are positively the simplest paper flower to make—and quite possibly the prettiest. Their thin, delicate texture allows light to pass through the “petals” similar to those of real flowers, making them all the more ethereal, and causing you to do a double take.

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(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

We had a bunch of unbleached coffee filters hanging out in our pantry that I decided to use (although I have no idea how they got there! I don’t believe we’ve ever owned a large coffee pot!) that I really liked the look of. However, if we’d had regular old white coffee filters I would have dyed them various colors using hot water and food coloring. You can also play around with sizing; if you have 2 or 3 different filter sizes, stack them up together to be used on one flower. Just be sure to have the largest filters on the bottom/outside of the flower and smaller in towards the middle.

What You Need

Materials

  • 6 Basket style coffee filters (any/all sizes) per flower
  • Floral stem wire (or anything else you want to use for a stem)
  • Floral tape or masking tape

Tools

  • Scissors
  • Stapler

Instructions

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

1. Flatten up to 6 coffee filters and stack them one on top of the other in a neat pile.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

2. Fold the stack in half.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

3. Fold the half in half one more time so the stack is now 1/4 of the size of the circle.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

4. Trim around the edge of the folded quarter. Cut any shape you like, from scallop to fringed.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

5. Staple the bottom corner together.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

6. Scrunch the paper around at the staple so it’s not quite as flat, as above.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

7. Put a small hook in the top of your stem and run it through the flower from the inside of the middle, out through the bottom. The hook should keep the stem from slipping all the way through the bottom of the flower.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

8. Wrap the floral tape around the bottom of the flower (covering the staple) down the wire stem about an inch, and back up over the bottom of the flower. Pinch and secure in place.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

9. Gently begin to unfold the layers of the flower starting with the outer layer and working your way in towards the center of the flower.

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

Enjoy your beautiful flower—make many more and share them with friends!

(Image credit: Ashley Poskin)

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