coffee filter foof {tutorial}

A few days ago the Nester posted about her fabulous coffee filter wreath.

Miss Nester posted links to other impressive creations like this one made with natural coffee filters

and this pretty one

but I was in awe of this amazing light fixture

She used a paper lantern ball and lots and lots of coffee filters. Very impressive.

All of this gave me an idea for an ornament {or a hanging foof in my case – sorry, I couldn’t come up with a better name for it}. Now I’m sure there are great tutorials out there for how to make a project with coffee filters, but I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and share {just in case you haven’t seen how to do it}.

Here’s what you need:

:: styrofoam ball

:: coffee filters

:: scissors

:: hot glue gun & glue

STEP ONE:  cover the styrofoam ball

Simply flatten a filter and glue to adhere.

The styrofoam melts slightly when you use hot glue, which is why I covered it.

STEP TWO: create a foof

fold a filter in half

Then half again {quarters}

and again {eighths}

Now snip off the end

and your piece is ready to adhere to the ball

STEP THREE: glue foof piece to ball

Put a glob of glue on the ball, then gently press the foof into place. Continue with another, placing them close to each other.

Once your ball is half covered, you can turn it over and work on the other side. I was worried I would smoosh the coffee filter foofs, but they were just fine.

Keep going and going and going

you will probably be very excited when you come to this point:

STEP FOUR: trim

Your foof will be a bit uneven, so just go around and trim

STEP FIVE: create a hanger

Here is what you need:

:: ribbon

:: straight pin

:: scissors

Cut a piece of ribbon to the length you want, fold over the ends and poke pin through

Then press into the ball and you are done!

Such beautiful ruffly goodness.

I started with a 6” styrofoam ball and ended up with a 12” foof. I used about 100 filters.

I’m guessing you can use the same technique to create a wreath or to cover a styrofoam cone to make an unexpected Christmas decoration as the Nester did

My next project to copy is this amazing garland by Pam Garrison

So pretty.

Posted by emily | 53 comments