This idea was thought up by the fabulous Pam Garrison and I have also seen it on Heather Bullard’s blog. I loved it, and wanted to make some for my home. I thought it would be fun to dye the coffee filters different shades of pink to make a pom pom banner for Valentine’s Day.
This is what I was working on yesterday…
Here’s what I did:
First of all, I took two big bowls of hot water. I added 5 tea bags to one. And red food coloring to the other. I was trying to get a soft peachish-pink hue. Let me tell you — it was a little tricky getting the right color. The red color really soaks into the coffee filters. So what I found out was, a big bowl of hot water and 3 drops of red food coloring works well. I added just a smidge of yellow food coloring. Not even one drop, or it turns ORANGE! Which I discovered.
I ended up wrapping instant coffee in burlap and tying it and putting it in the bowl. The tea bags were just not dying the material dark enough.
I found the easiest way to dye the filers pink, was put about 12 in at a time and submerge them very quickly, then I took them all out and squeezed them out over the bowl. Then I put them on a paper towel and separated them out.
To dye the filters brown I had to submerge them for a longer time. About 10 minutes a batch.
Then I tried two different ways to dry them. The first was laying scrunched up on a cookie sheet and cooking them at the lowest setting: 200-degrees. It took about 10-15 minutes for them to dry.
The second way was to lay the coffee filters out flat directly on the racks. This was my favorite way to dry them. It only takes between 2-3 minutes for them to dry this way.
Then I was ready for the fun part – making the pom-poms! I took small cupcake liners, various dyed coffee filters, tissue paper, newspaper, tulle and beads and strung them on string. I made a knot at one end of the string, then I put the bead on, followed by the pom pom, then another bead and another knot. Then I spaced the pom poms out about 10 inches and did the same thing. I pushed a metal BBQ skewer through the layers of the pom pom to make a hole, and I wrapped the end of the string in scotch tape to make it stiff, so it would go through the layers and the beads (the holes in the beads were extra large).
I also made a smaller pom pom banner out of silver cupcake liners, tissue paper, newspaper, music paper, mini cupcake liners and tulle.
I think it adds a little touch of romance to my mantles.
Thanks for coming over!
Have a Wonderful Day!
XOXO
nice idea! God bless your talent 🙂
Love it I’m doing it for my birthday party
that is the sweetest thing! i love that garland. i can't wait to have an excuse to make it!
thanks for the inspiration!
<3
Jen
Thanks for this beautiful idea! I have thought about sharing it with my readers and I hope you are not sorry if I have inserted her in my post of S. Valentine (http://bimbumbeta.blogspot.com/2010/02/s-valentino-piccoli-pensieri-amorosi.html). If you had to not make you like I will handle to remove the link to your blog. Regards, Beta