Coffee Filter Fun...Second Way

One of my favorite blogs is Frugal Family Fun Blog;  it is very true to its name.  On this blog, I found a second way to bring spring into our home via the coffee filter.

 Coffee Filter Sunshine

What You Need:

• Coffee filters
• Washable markers OR watercolor paints
• Water
• Paintbrush
• Scissors (optional)

This is so easy!!

1.  If you want...fold the coffee filter into thirds and then snip to make a zig-zag edge.  (Does that make any sense??  I forgot to take a picture of this step!)
2. Color or paint on the coffee filter.  If you opt for the paint, you are finished, and just need to let that sunshine dry.
3. If you used marker...now you get to paint with water!  That's right, folks.  Water.  
4. Let the coffee filter dry.
5. Hang it in the window.

I don't have any watercolor paints so we went the marker route.  They look so thrilled.

Abby painting with water, causing the marker colors to bleed and run together.  (We lost Eli after the coloring.  Refer to previous picture.)  She LOVED this...the painting part...not the losing Eli part. 

How can painting with water be so messy?  A mystery for the ages, I guess.  Make sure you have something down underneath the coffee filters once you start in with the water.

So, with our first coffee filter project it is true that the kiddos outdid me.  I liked theirs MUCH better than mine.  Sorry kids.  Mom wins on THIS coffee filter project.   Theirs were good this time around too, but I did like how mine looked as I had covered the entire coffee filter with marker, contrasting their more sporadic coloring.

One of my creations in all three stages:

1. COVERED the coffee filter in marker.
2. Still wet from the water painting.
3. Dry and on the window.

The Finished Product

With the zig-zag edges.  So sunshiney.

Please stay, blue skies.

So there you have it.  Fun with coffee filters...two ways.  

Who has another?

Coffee Filter Fun...First Way

We're bringing in spring around here regardless of what it looks like outside.  All of the snowflakes and winterish things have come down and in its place we are growing some flowers.

Coffee Filter Flowers

What You Need:

• Coffee filters
• Washable markers
• Spray bottle of water
• Pipe cleaners
• Green tape

We started by coloring on the coffee filters using the washable markers.

After we finished coloring, I sprayed the coffee filters with water, completely dousing the whole thing.

Here they are post-spraying.  You can really see on Eli's how the colors are starting to bleed and run together, hence the need for WASHABLE markers.  I thought that Eli and Abby's turned out better than mine, a fact that I am embarrassed happy to say surprised me.  The more marker...the better.

Abby blowing on them to speed along the drying process.  They dried REALLY fast, even without the additional help of an adorable 2-year old.  We made them in the morning and they were easily dried by lunch time.

The Finished Product

A centerpiece.  Kind of gather up the center of the coffee filter to make a cone-ish type shape.  Wrap a pipe cleaner around it and pop it in a vase.

A made-over Winter Wonderland, though Eli did insist on keeping his penguins by their house.  The leaves and stems are just green painters tape that I found at Walmart.

The kids LOVED this and it was super easy.  Eli and I actually did some more in the afternoon, while Abby was sleeping, at his request.  I was surprised at how good it felt to be growing some Spring in our home.  Our inside-March was in like a lamb...now if outside-March would just follow.

Tomorrow:

Coffee Filter Fun...Second Way