Coffee Filter Sunflowers

I live in the country, so I’m seeing a lot of sunflowers right about now. I love how they tower over everything and stand so majestically! Kids have been making sunflower crafts for many years, and the coffee filter sunflower has been done in several different ways. I’ve seen the filters colored with crayons, and I’ve seen people use watercolor paints as well.

Today, we are going to use food coloring. Most kitchen pantries have one of those little boxes of food coloring left over from dyeing Easter eggs. So pull out that box, a few coffee filters, grab the kids and make some pretty sunflowers to celebrate the coming of fall.

You will need (for one flower):

3 white coffee filters
Paper plate
Red and yellow food coloring
Water
1 sheet light blue card stock or construction paper
Handful of brown beads
Tools: paintbrush, cooling rack, scissors, white craft glue

Place two small dishes on the table and add one tablespoon of water to each one. Add 10 drops of yellow food coloring to one dish. To the second dish, add 7 drops of yellow food coloring and 4 drops of red food coloring.

You may wish to cover your work surface with a plastic tablecloth or newspapers. Have kids wear a smock too. Food coloring can stain fingers and clothes.

Place one of the coffee filters onto your paper plate. Dip paintbrush into the colored water and mix in gently. Paint the coffee filter with the colored water. Transfer the wet coffee filter to a cooling rack to dry.

Repeat this process with the other two coffee filters, painting a second one orange and the third one whatever you like! You can paint it yellow, orange or a combination of the two.

When coffee filters are dry, remove them from the rack. Stack all three coffee filters neatly together, then fold in half. Fold it in half a second time. Now fold it in half two more times for a total of four times.

Use scissors to round both sides of the folded coffee filter. When you open it up it should resemble a flower. Repeat for the other two coffee filters.

Glue one of the filters to the center of the light blue card stock. Glue the other two filters on top of the first, being sure to place the “petals” offset rather than stacked on top of each other. This will give your flower a fuller look.

“Draw” a circle of white glue in the center of the flower, being sure to fill the circle in with the glue. Place beads into the glue to act as the sunflower seeds. Allow everything to dry completely.

If you don’t have any beads on hand, here are a few ideas for making the center of the flower:

• Brown construction paper
• Real sunflower seeds in the shell
• Tiny pebbles from your yard
• Color a piece of paper brown and cut in a circle
• Ground cinnamon (pictured above)
• Black pepper (may cause sneezing!)
• Dirt from your yard
• Raisins
• Brown napkin or tissue paper crumpled into small pieces

I hope you had fun with this project! Looking for more fall ideas? Try these adorable fall leaf finger puppets! Happy fall!

Project created by Amanda Formaro for Kix Cereal. Amanda is a well-known craft expert and author of the  books “Rubber Band Mania” and “Duct Tape Mania”, the first two in a series of craft books for kids. She has been writing and crafting on the Internet for over fifteen years. Find out more on her blog, Crafts by Amanda, where she shares tutorials with step-by-step photos for adults and kids alike.