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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Measuring Out My Days with Coffee Filters

filter wreath closeup
With apologies to T. S. Eliot and J. Alfred Prufrock, I cannot measure out my life with coffee spoons because I don't drink coffee. Recently, however, I measured out a couple of days with coffee filters.

For the last several years, I have hung a white feather wreath on our dining room mirror at Christmastime.  Loved that wreath; I got it at a local gift shop long before feather wreaths were at the big box stores and everywhere else.  With each succeeding year though, the wreath got a little more bedraggled.  This year, I decided sadly that I really shouldn't bring it back out. What to replace it?


I liked the look of some of the coffee filter wreaths I've seen on Pinterest, and it sounded easy, so I got the supplies and got to work.
filter wreath supplies
coffee filters, glue gun, glue sticks, old t-shirt, scissors, straw wreath
No matter how good my iPod playlist is (and, honeychild, I have some good stuff on there), there is a limit to how long at one sitting I can fold and crunch filters and burn my fingers with hot glue, so it took me part of two or three days to complete my wreath.
filter wreath collag
wrapped in t-shirt strips                                                               the inside edge of glued filters
I'm not going to write a tutorial since there are scads of them online already.  I will just say I used a fourteen-inch straw wreath, which I wrapped with strips of old t-shirt, and about 280 filters.  I started out trying to place the filters in rows like the tutorials suggest, but I wound up just sticking them in as close together as I could, which no doubt explains some of the finger burns.
filter wreath back
back of the wreath
After I had glued on as many filters as I could, I trimmed the edges slightly, but my wreath is not perfect.  It's kind of cockeyed, which suits me just fine as I'm a bit cockeyed myself.  I initially planned a ribbon hanger wrapped around the wreath, but soon scrapped that and filled the entire thing with filters.  I attached a length of ribbon to the back with straight pins and hot glue.  I used one of those cool 3M Command hangers directly on the mirror.  In years past, I took the mirror down and hung the feather wreath from a ribbon taped to the back of the mirror.  The 3M hook was so much easier -- love that!

filter wreath on mirror



For those of you who have been wondering why I haven't posted lately, I have indeed been busy, but I had also run out of photo space (again!) on Picasa.  I am now trying a Flickr account.  I hope this will be the ticket.

28 comments:

  1. It's gorgeous! I keep seeing all these fabulous ideas that I'd love to make, just running out of time, so going to have to make a note of this for next Christmas! Well done, it really is lovely.
    xx

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  2. I would not have the patience for this project, although I once taped hundreds of cottonballs to a garbage bag so my daughter could dress as a sheep for Halloween. She won a prize too. Crazy, yes. But that was then, this is now.

    Your wreath is lovely and I'm especially loving that mirror.

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    1. A sheep costume would be fun. We once glued red glitter to sneakers to make ruby slippers. It rained that year and all the glitter washed off. Rain could definitely play havoc with cotton balls too I imagine.

      The mirror belonged to my in-laws and when they downsized, we scooped it up!

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  3. I love your wreath. You did a wonderful job. I would say the burned fingers were worth it :)

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  4. your wreath is great, I'm glad I'm not the only one that manages to burn themselves with the glue gun!!

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  5. The wreath is gorgeous!

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  6. Your wreathe is wonderful. That is awesome and I'm going to pin this. Next I hear people running out of space, but I have no idea how that is possible??? sandie

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  7. It is gorgeous!!!! What a great idea to use the old tshirt as a wrapping agent. Perfect. I am sorry you got burned but it makes me realize that I am not the ONLY one that burns herself. I have the scars to prove it- xo Diana

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  8. First of all, I love Eliot, and I love Prufrock!!! :D He is one of our best Christian writers from the twentieth century, along with C.S. Lewis.....

    Wow, your wreath is stunning! It looks like carnations. I love it!!! I hope your Flickr account works ok....I have a Photobucket account, but do you know what I've ben doing lately? If I have a picture that doesn't need to be cropped or edited in any way, I have been importing it straight form my desktop. :D

    xo,
    RJ

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  9. It turned out great! I hope your burned fingers are feeling better. I know how that hot glue can burn!

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  10. That is lovely!! & I think you could leave it up in January also - very snowy & wintery.
    Thanks
    Angie

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  11. Looks beautiful! I covered two lamp shades a few months (maybe a year) ago with coffee filters like this I worked for hours too and had multiple burns....you did a great job your patience paid off!

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  12. Looks brilliant. Well done for having the patience to finish it! Thanks for stopping by my blog, it's always nice to see bits of people's lives in other parts of the world! Good luck with your crochet blocks blanket, it's a good book isn't it! xx

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  13. Wow. I love your wreath. It looks gorgeous! I know what you mean about being busy and I also found it a bit of a bind having to upload to Flickr first as I have to decide before which photos I'm going to use whereas before I just upload them in a more spur of the moment way! I'm wondering whether its worth paying the extra for more picasa storage space. I don't want it to influence how much I blog! Maggie xx

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  14. Great job on the wreath! I think it turned out beautiful. I would never have the patience to complete the job .... kudos to you!

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  15. That turned out beautifully. Sorry about the photo storage issue. I bought a year of storage for $5 the last few years, but I've heard they have discontinued that program.

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  16. Awesome wreath, that's a lot of glueing hehe... It looks great!

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  17. Wow, fabulous job on the wreath. It looks so pretty hanging on your beautiful mirror. Great tip, too, on how to hang it.
    p.s. hope your fingers are ok!!!

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  18. Oh, wow! It's so full and fluffy and pretty! You did a fantastic job. I'm sure it would take me at least that long to make one, too. I'd get restless and bored about 1/4 the way through and have to leave it for awhile. ;-)

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  19. Oh wow!!! It turned out beautifully!!! We don't have a wreath, so maybe I should try this one?
    ~Kim

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  20. You are so creative! This is absolutely beautiful!!!

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  21. You are a genius! The wreath is so fluffy, and pretty.

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  22. Amazing! It looks like a snow wreath.

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  23. It's a gorgeous wreath (and that mirroe is rather lovely too). It looks like a lot of work!

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  24. Glad you're back...and I am filled with admiration for all the hours you spent making this wreath. You are a better woman than I! I would have given up after the first session. :o) It's fabulous too.

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  25. I love your wreath and I think it looks great! I do not have a wreath for my front door but I think it will have to wait until next year. It's always nice to put up something fresh and new.

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