DIY: COFFEE FILTER GARLANDS

This is something I have been looking forward to making for a LONG time now, and finally had an opportunity to try it. I learned a few things along the way, and am excited to dive in and share it with with you guys!

Coffee Filter Garlands- such a fun and versatile craft. These can be used for all sorts of events: baby showers, weddings, garden parties- the list goes on and on. I offered to help out making crafts for one of my friends wedding parties. I shared this little project with her, and she ended up just using it for a wedding party last week. Exciting!

Let's get into the dirty details, shall we?

MATERIALS:
 - coffee filters (I ended up using about 300, which is not as many as it seems)
 - string: any sort will do (I used embroidery thread, but I would suggest thin yarn)
 - needle (I chose a longer 16 gauge sewing needle)
 - food coloring
 - water (about 5-6 cups for 300 filters- does not need to be measured, just need enough to soak filters)
 - bowl and spoon

INSTRUCTIONS:
1: Fill a bowl up with warm water. Choose your color theme for your garland. Put a few drops of the lightest color in the water and stir.

2: Separate the filters in to piles of however many colors you are planning to make. I chose three colors- so I made approximately 100 of each color.

3: Soak the first round of filters in the first (lighter) color. I found it a lot easier to do this in sections, maybe 15 filters at a time, and soaking them for about 10 seconds each, or long enough to soak up color. When done soaking, separate them out, and lay them to dry.

4: Repeat step 3 for all filters. With each round of filters, either change water and make new color, or add more drops of food coloring to make them darker colors.

5: Let the filters dry overnight, to ensure proper color adherence (<--- that is a fancy pretty darn word, look at me!).

6: Day Two: String your thread and start to poke holes through each of the filters in the center. I did every other, but you can choose what ever pattern works for you.

7: Once you have all of the filters strung on, you can do any thing you would like with it. I have a few suggestions, based on my experience: I recommend tying every few inches (8" or so) to help separate filters and make a longer garland. I would also recommend that when they are all on the string, you crumple them up each individually, to give the garland a fuller look. I ended up doing this with mine, but forgot to take a picture (not even an Instagram!), and I think it helped make it look more complete.

DETAILS ABOUT MINE:
I chose to make a pink garland, so my first water color was light pink (3 drops of red food coloring in a bowl of about 6 cups water), second color was darker pink (about 6 total drops of food coloring), and third color was orange (4 drops of yellow with the already 6 drops of red).

These are some images of my "completed" garland, the one before I tied it off, and crumpled it. I love the colors, and like the look of this one too. You could easily keep it flat, tie it off every inch or so, and that would help, or just hand dye a bazillion (yea, thats a real number) filters, and go from there.

Have you been making anything fun lately?

What would you use a Coffee Filter Garland for?

Happy Crafting!