Fluffy Flowers

Today is our last mini tutorial for El's Golden Birthday!

Today's project takes a bit more time, but is still very easy to do.  And cheap.  Did I mention I was on a budget?  Yes, well, if you have coffee filters lying around and a hot glue gun, you don't have to buy a thing!  If, like me, you don't drink coffee, you can get 100 coffee filters for just over a dollar depending on the grocery store.  Not bad for party decor.  Ready?
Let's make some:

shall we?  

1.  Lay your filter flat.
2.  Fold it in half.
3.  Fold one end over, in toward the middle about two inches.
4.  Fold this fold under, again toward the middle, making both folds the same size.
5.  Fold the folds over to the top again.  Do you see we're making an according fold here?
6.  Fold the folds all under again.  You have a coffee filter half circle accordion now.

You will need to make 15-18 of these folded triangles for every one carnation.

7.  Put some hot glue on the tip of the triangle.
8.  Lay it on another coffee filter, with the point in the center.
9.  Lay another folded triangle next to this, touching, but not overlapping.
10.  Do this again and again.
11.  When you've done a complete layer like this, you will layer more triangles on top.  Put glue on the tip again, and instead of placing the tip directly in the center, slide it down a bit, so it over from the edge about an inch or a little less and you can still see the outside edge of the first layer.
12.  Continue laying the second layer, overlapping the points in the middle.

Here's a close up of that the middle will look like at this point:

You can bunch the points up a bit in the center so they don't stick out funny.

Now, to make the center of the flower.

13.  Take a coffee filter and fold it in half.
14.  Fold the straight edge up twice.
15.  Roll the folded half circle from one end to the other, loosely, bunching the bottom slightly as you roll.
16.  Place some hot glue in the center of your flower.
17.  Smoosh your center bunchy piece down on the hot glue.
18.  Let it sit for a moment to allow the glue to dry.

All that's left to do is fluff!

19.  Take each folded triangle section and pull the front and back of the folded coffee filter apart a bit.  Basically you are just separating each layer.  You can pull apart and separate as much or as little as you want, it just depends on how fluffy you want your carnations to be!

You can also make smaller carnations as well.

After you fold your triangles, just trim some of the top off - about an inch or so.  See the difference in size when compared to the whole coffee filter?  Then cut a filter like this to use as the base.  Cut the bottom tips off so that they aren't too bunchy and thick in the middle of the flower.  You can see all the filter leftovers from my trimming.  Then just glue in two layers, as described above.  Don't forget to add the middle piece of the flower.

Voila!  You're done!  Carnations - big and little, to use as party decor!  

Obviously these are flat on one side, so unlike the tissue paper pom poms that Martha made famous, these are more ideal for setting against a flat surface than for hanging.  For instance, you could group some together on a placemat for a centerpiece, put one on top of the cake, make an oversized wreath, or you could do what I did:

I hot glued my coffee filter carnations to accordion flower thingies to make a backdrop for the food table.

More on the backdrop tomorrow!

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!