I am getting ready to try and make some of the coffee filter wreaths I saw online in the last few days. Have you seen them? They look very nice and also look like they will be a lot of fun to make! Tonight I am going to dye the filters and tomorrow I will put one together and let you know how that work, okay? Blog you later...-C
Welcome! I could hardly wait to start working on the wreaths yesterday! So the first thing to do is to dye the filters the colors you want. Since it’s almost Easter I picked up a box of Easter egg dyes and decided to use them. The directions say to achieve different levels of colors, use different ingredients, like to achieve the most intense color, use vinegar, for less intense color use lemon juice, and for the least or a pastel kind of color, use water. Well from looking at different wreaths, I decided that I want muted or pastel colors. Now that I was thinking about it, I wished that I would have bought the natural color filters. I decided to use a tea dye first, but alas! I only have the kind that comes in the individual package that you mix in a bottle of water. So I dyed a stack of filters in the tea and then mixed the pink and decided that I wanted the look of dyed carnations. You know how they have different colored edges? That’s what I wanted to achieve. So, I dunked a whole pile of filters in all together edge side first. Then I decided that I would leave them in the dye a long time to intensify the color. Much fun, but it was getting late so I decided to go to bed and finish dying the rest the next day.
This morning I checked on my drying coffee filters and was a little disappointed that the tea lightened up so much, and actually so did the pink. I don’t mind the pinks lighter so much though. I had already tea dyed the batch for the next color, and since the tablets take so long to dissolve, I had dropped the orange into water so it was already dissolve.
So, thinking about making these wreaths is making me feel a little guilty and I’m thinking that I’d better spend some time drawing today too. I only have a couple left…
So I got out my drawing pad and stared at the outline I had made… The title is ‘birth order’ I had narrowed down my subject matter to either; a few of my brothers and sisters, my babies, or my grandchildren. I decided I wanted to draw my children. After all, that is how I really got started drawing seriously in the first place, by drawing a picture of them many years ago. I wish I still had that drawing; I’d just use that one for this book. Then I’d only have a couple more to do and I’d be finished with this project and could concentrate more on my own bucket list of drawings I want to do before my time is up here.
...Put the rest of the pinks and the orange filters outside to dry, stuck the yellow tablet in water to dissolve. What a gorgeous day it is out there! I saw the most beautiful blue bird outside, he came and sat on the lamppost in front of us, just so I could admire him a minute I guess, and then he flew off to a nearby tree. Reminded me of my Dad…and the movie ‘The Big Year’ my son and I just watched the other night.
Got a message from someone the other day asking if I paint…yes I do paint, but I haven’t for awhile. Been busy with these illustrations for a decade or so…and the art and crafts that strike my fancy along the way, like these wreaths. Last weekend it was floral arrangements, Easter trees, and decorating cake pops…
Got a new idea for floral arrangements watching some show yesterday, I will share when I get a minute to make one, k?
Okay, that does it! I decided to spend one hour on the ’Birth Order’ drawing, be back later…
Well… spent a couple minutes on that drawing, then ended up going shopping for stuff to finish the wreaths…more about that tomorrow. Yellows are dyed, the other colors are almost dry. Overall it’s been a very GOOD FRIDAY!
Saturday 4/8/12
Forgot to tell you about my shopping expedition yesterday to get the rest of the stuff I need to construct these wreaths. Ran to the bigger city by us to hit more stores since I needed the wreath forms and the two little stores down here don’t seem to carry anything like that! I also wanted to find some extra stuff to embellish my …wreath it looks like. I was thinking that there was enough to make a few or at least two different wreaths, but now that I have started making the flowers I can see that I will prolly get one wreath per pack of filters. Too bad I made three forms. Yes, I made them! I found some at the local craft store and they were more expensive than I thought they would be, so I went elsewhere and they were even more! So, back to the Dollar Store I went.
Remind me to send some of my pics to Dollar Tree, will ya? I saw a post from them requesting pics of things created from their store, and believe me; lots of my crafts are made from there! Anyhow I bought some of those noodles that are for playing in the water and strung them on a wire hanger for my wreath forms. Cost me a dollar apiece, good deal, huh?
What a nice Saturday! Ran to town to pick up the tape and string I needed and apparently forgot yesterday!
I had dinner with a couple of wonderful friends. We had a great visit, but we also talked some business too.
We were talking about my business plan outline, my plan to make my living from my arts and crafts. Seems like it has pursued me all my life and I am finally accepting that it is what I am supposed to be doing with my talents.
Came back and made coffee filter flowers, hopefully I can add some pics soon. The one I saw and really admired that inspired me is much more muted colors than the ones I made from the Easter egg coloring, but I am quite pleased with how they are turning out. The first ones were experimental and not exactly what I remembered about the one I saw online, so I double checked and found out how she made hers. My first ones look more like roses, and hers look more like rhododendrons. All the colors kind of remind me of coloring eggs with my babies around Easter. Wow, that seems like ages ago now!
Finally finished…making the flowers…let’s see I seem to be two days into my one day project and still need to attach them to the forms I made…maybe tomorrow, stay tuned! Here's some pix of the tea dyed ones, and ta-da! a picture of my first Kapi filter wreath, whaddya think?
