COFFEE FILTER FLOWERS by Sandra Larkin Douglas

Thanks to sandra for the wonderful flowers. Ideal for Ayyam i Ha decorations or gifts.

Supplies:
• White coffee filters
• Acrylic paint
• Needle & thread

1. In a small cup, dilute some yellow paint in some water.
2. Dip the edges of one filter into the paint. Allow the paint to “travel” into the interior of the filter on its own.
3. With a brush apply another color to the center of the filter, allowing the color to move out on it’s own. The two colors will blend into one another.
4. When the filter is partially dry you can use a brush and add a bit more color for accent.


The Painted Flowers

5. You can cut the filters down to smaller sizes for smaller flowers.
6. You can dip the cut off edges in green to create the leaves.
7. When the filters are totally dry, use a needle and thread and sew all the way around the edge of the filter and very carefully pull this thread up to “gather” it to the center creating a “yo yo”.
8. These “flowers” can be used in many ways. I created an example of a possible use. putting some on a piece of cardstock, adding a green pipe stem and a quotation. There are many quotes in the writings about flowers and gardens.

The finished flowers

Then will mankind be as one nation, one race and kind;
as waves of one ocean. Although these waves may differ
in form and shape, they are waves of the same sea.
Flowers may be variegated in colors but they are all
flowers of one garden.

Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity