Valentine's Day--Rose Wreath...

This idea came from Pinterest once again!  I am in love with all of the creative, unique and thrifty ideas that I come across on a daily basis.  This one was particularly fun!

What you will need:

•  wreath form (wire or Styrofoam would work)
•  fabric or burlap (optional)
•  coffee filters
•  dye
•  masking tape
•  glue gun
•  wide ribbon

Here's what I did:

1. I mixed acrylic paints with water to make a solution to dye the coffee filters.  I mixed various shades of pink and made some green and cream ones too.  Then they needed to dry.  Here they are drying on the table!

2. I wrapped my wreath form in a strip of burlap, but you could probably skip this step or use any coordinating strip of fabric or ribbon.

3. Then after the filters dried, you begin making the flowers.  To make larger flowers, you take 3 filters and fold them in half twice.  Cutting out the center in a scalloped pattern.  The you twist the three centers adhering one end to the masking tape.  You are then going to fold the rest into pleats along the masking tape until you have folded all three filters along the tape. 

 

For smaller flowers, just cut the filter into a spiral and begin pleating along the tape. Follow instructions below to form a full flower.

4. Once you have the strip of pleated filter, you will begin rolling it starting with the centers and attempt to make it look like a flower!  Beware: If you wind it too tight, it makes the flower harder to blossom.  If you do it too loose, it doesn't like as much life a flower.  There IS a happy medium that comes as you get the feel for it.

5. Then you begin adhering the flowers to the wreath form in a random order.  I didn't really think too much about this as I did it. I did try to keep the larger flowers spaced out a bit and spaced the same colored flowers out, but I think it came together real nice!

6. Then...you lace the ribbon through and tie a bow at the top so that it can hang!  I got a spool of $1.00 ribbon at Michaels!

This one was pretty time consuming, but I LOVE IT!!!  And I finished it with two days left til Valentine's Day, so we got to enjoy it, but it'll be ready for next year!