Coffee filter hydrangeas

 About two years ago I started making these hydrangeas,  I'd been looking for a suitable container for them every time I went shopping, but could never find just what I had in mind for them. So I lost interest in the flowers and stashed them away. Last week I was looking  at garden ornaments in Home Bargains and spotted a small tin bath. That was exactly what I wanted and that in turn inspired me to getting out the re inkers and coffee filters and start making.

I posted a photo on facebook of these flowers and received a few requests for instructions on making them.  Although I had already written a post on the making them two years ago I have decided to re write it, as I have changed a couple of  things to make construction easier. I also think I was on another planet when I wrote the first post, so here's  hoping the  re write, with extra photos will make more sense.

You'll need :

8 large basket type coffee filter papers for each flower.

Re inkers, in hydrangea colours. 2 pinks, 2 blues,  1green and  1yellow.

3 spritzing bottles 

Green garden wire 

Florist tape, optional 

Tools.

Scissors, hot glue gun, a stapler, and wire snips.

Something to display them in, 

 Brown Oasis for artificial flowers.

Take two coffee filters, fold them in half and keep folding them in half, four times in total if I remember correctly. 

In my last tutorial I said dye the coffee papers first. In this re write I recommend cutting out the flowers first. I'll  show you the reason why later in this post.

Draw a four petal flower at the top and give that flower a long neck and shoulders, as in the photo below. Cut out the flower, neck and shoulders carefully.

Open out each coffee filter and check that all the flowers are single and  not connected to the one next to it.  If  you find you have some flowers  still connected snip them apart.

On a plastic sheet, spritz the centre of the coffee  filter with a little plain water.

Spritz  a couple of the flower stems and flowers with a little diluted yellow or lime green ink.

 I have used a little spritz of lucky limeade on some. Google hydrangea images for ideas on colours. You'll see a touch of yellow or green in most of the flowers, especially the white variety. 

The beauty of Hydrangeas is they come in may colours pinks, blues, white and even lilac and purple. I am partial to the blue ones myself, but they turn pink in my garden... even when grown in pots.

Then spritz on a diluted pale blue ink on the rest of the coffee filter. I used Bashful blue, which I realize many people wont have now.  Diluted Seaside Spray is a close alternative,  but any blue that is close to a baby blue will do,  Alternatively you could use Orchid oasis water down of course. 

I use roughly 6 or 7 drops of ink to two table spoons of water. If you want a stronger colour add a couple more drops of ink, and if you want a paler colour add more water. It's a good idea to test your mix on a spare coffee filter before applying it to your flowers, so you can adjust the intensity.

While everything is still  wet  add  just a couple of fine spritzes of a darker cool blue to one or two small groups of petals. I used Starry night. on a couple of my flowers and night of navy on a couple of the others.   BE CAREFUL.  Not to spritz on too much of the darker blue. You only need a very small  amount on the edges of a few flowers. If you feel you have used too much, spritz the area with clean water to help dilute it.

Take care at this stage the filters are quite delicate at this stage, so handle them gently. If you lose a flower or two don't panic, it won't show in the finished flower.

Now fold the filter in half, and in half again and hang up to dry. On a nice day and if you don't mind your neighbours thinking you've gone mad, hang them outside on the washing line to dry from the corner so the petals are hanging down. They'll take about ten minutes to dry. 

On a wet day rig up a mini washing line over the kitchen sink/ drainer.

I used garden wire wrapped around the cupboard handles.

Because I didn't have much space on my makeshift  line I had to hang several filters together , which meant they took an awful lot longer to dry.

Now the reason I said  cut the flowers out first and to hang each filter from the corner, is so that the ink can drain  down to the tips of the petal, which will give a lot of the petal tips a darker edge. I think this effect gives the petals  more depth to the flower giving a  realistic look. You won't get that edge on all the petals but that's ok.

 If you stain the coffee filters first as I did on my first three flowers. I found I was cutting that lovely  dark edge off and binning it. My last photo will be a picture of the first three flowers without that edge, I think you will agree it does make a big difference.

Once dry,  you can start assembling the flower head.  With each coffee filter folded in half , just once, and  stack eight.  Make sure the petals are pointing out and not trapped between the layers of the filters.

Another change I made from my original post where I glued each layer together was to just staple the layers together.  Just two staples does the job just fine. No messing with glue and waiting for it to dry or set, and no burnt fingers.

The next step is to add the stem.  I cut a length of garden wire to approximately 12 inches, I folded over one end by about and inch. just to give the glue a bit more to grab onto.

Find the centre of the coffee filter and glue the wire in place.

Now I found it impossible to take a photo while doing the next bit, as I need two hands to hold my camera.  I placed a line of hot glue across the first half of the filter and began to roll the filter into a cone shape, keeping it fairly tight to the wire at the bottom.

The second half was easier as the cone was shape was now formed.

 

Add more hot glue and continue to roll.

You may find as I did, that the layers are a tiny bit flappy on the outside, to remedy this just squeeze little hot glue between the flappy bits. Alternatively you can bind the cone and the stem with green florist tape. I did bind my first three flowers with tape, but when I made the second batch I really couldn't see the point as you don't see the stems. If you want to bind the leave to the stems then you'll need to bind the cone and stem for good adhesion.

Now the eagle eyed among you may have spotted I only used four coffee filters for this post, to save me time. I  still got a good flower, but it's much looser and limper and lacks body  and the petals droop and its lost the wow factor the eight filter flower has. But as I didn't need another flower, this one was made purely for this post so you guys can see how they were made. so I am not too worried about this one.

 The Leaves.

The leaves are made from coffee filters too.  I folded two green coffee filters into quarters and drew on

the rough leaf shape you see above and cut out four at a time.

 Word of warning here,  To get the leaves dark green was a real mission and a half. I spritzed them with a very strong solution of green, so strong in fact they looked almost black when wet. However when they had dried they were quite a muted grey green, I ended up spritzing them 5 times and allowing to dry between spritzing. I think If I were to make them again I would probably just paint them with neat ink.  I used Evening evergreen on these leaves with a squirt or two of night of navy.

I had trouble with the first batch of leaves I made, so I knew this leaves were going to be a challenge this time.  They looked more like cabbage leaves. Not a good look for a hydrangea.

Other ideas might be to cut the leaves from evening evergreen card, or try water colour paints or food colouring.

Once I had achieved a reasonable depth of colour in my leaves, I used a hot glue gun and sandwiched a length of garden wire between two leaves.

My final tip on these flowers, after a time the colour will fade a little if kept in a less well lit part of the house, but they will fade a lot if kept in a sunny spot.   All is not lost if  they do fade,  simply wave them in the air and give the tips the lightest of sprays with the same colour diluted ink and hang them upside down to dry.

No darker tip on these.

Well I think that is all I have to impart on making these flowers I hope you find this useful and will have a bash at making them yourself.