Paper Flowers for Shavuot

Paper flowers are everywhere. Bloggers and crafters are making them out of crepe paper, tissue paper, watercolor paper and everything in between. 

What I like about these paper flowers is they're made with something you may already have in your kitchen: coffee filters! With Shavuot just around the corner, paper flowers are the perfect thing to start right now and you'll have enough for a centerpiece or pretty napkin rings for your holiday table.

I recently made these at a craft workshop in St. Louis and even those who were not artistic or crafty left with beautiful flowers. Here's how:

1. Mix some water based paint in a tub of water. I used about 2 tablespoons of paint in a few inches of water. Stir well, then immerse the entire filter in the tub of paint for at least 20 minutes. Squeeze out and dry on towels.

 2. After the filters are dry they look like this. Don't worry about the wrinkles.

3. Fold a filter four times. If you're working with large size filters you'll need 3 to 4 to create a flower. With small filters you'll need 2 to 3 for one flower.

4. Snip the point off the bottom and round the top. Or, you may decide to cut sharp spiky points on the top which look good, too.

5. Cut open each filter on a fold so that they open as shown above.

6. On a large stripe of masking tape, stick the bottoms of each filter on the sticky side of the tape. Keep each one close together.

7. For the next step you can use a stick as shown here, or a wood skewer. Starting at the end, carefully roll the tape around the stick. Keep pulling the tape down the stick a bit so the flower becomes full and not a tight cone.

You're done! 

From this.....................................................................................to this!