You'll never guess what these roses are made of

I love Martha Stewart.  Sure, her standards are high, her expectations are unattainable, her need to do EVERYTHING homemade is a little nuts, but she has great craft ideas!  A lot of them are really clever and easy too.

How about these roses?  You'll never guess what they are made from- coffee filters.  I'm telling you, I wouldn't believe it but it's true.  Thinking about it though, this would make an excellent centerpiece or head table decoration.  Softer and more realistic than plastic silk flowers, and a lot easier to customize to your exact colors.

I get the feeling that with these, the first one is the one that's going to take the most time.  After rose three, you'll be whipping these things out no problem.  Doing a little guesstimating in my head, it looks like all of the materials needed (assuming you have a scissors already) would cost you about 20 bucks and that money would probably be enough to make a dozen of these roses.  Not too bad!  Give this a try!


Tools and Materials
Box of disposable cone coffee filters (8 filters will make one full bloom rose)
Scissors
Coffee filter rose templates
16-gauge floral wire
Floral tape
Water color paint
Flat brush
Bamboo skewer
Glue stick

Coffee Filter Roses How-To

1. Trace and cut petal shapes through both layers of filters, as per templates.

2. Form rose. With coffee filter No. 1, take four connected petals and poke an 18-inch length of 16-gauge floral wire down through the center of the bottom of one end petal so 1/2 inch of the wire remains sandwiched between two opposite petals.

3. Wrap adjacent two petals tightly around first two petals; wrap with floral tape around base, then 1/2 inch down wire, to secure.

4. When working with floral tape, pull it as you work to expose the sticky part of the tape.

5. With coffee filter No. 2, take four connected petals and sandwich "flower bud" between two opposite petals. On the adjacent petal pair, gently tear the perforation of the base so that you have a strip of 2 side-by-side petals. Wrap this petal strip around the other two petals and secure with tape.

6. With coffee filter No. 3, take four connected petals and gently tear the perforation at the base to create a strip of four petals. Wrap this petal strip around flower bud and secure with tape.

7. With coffee filter No. 4, gently tear the perforation at the base of petal shapes to create a strip of five petals. Wrap this petal strip around flower bud and secure with tape. (The folded petal gives rose stability and a more rounded form.)
8. With coffee filter No. 5, place three petals, overlapping slightly on rose and wrap just once (to avoid bulk) with floral tape to secure.

9. Wrap remaining three petals opposite the first three. Repeat for shapes cut from filters Nos. 6, 7, and 8. Use finger and thumb to separate petals, creating air pockets and making petals curve outward from the base. Use 3 or 4 extra single petals to fill in holes and give a rounded shape.

10. To paint the roses, use watercolor paints, mixed with a bit of water. Paint the base color, first doing the bottom, then the top, working from the inside out. Accentuate with a darker color on the tips. Use a flat brush to apply a third color of undiluted watercolor to edges. Let dry overnight.

11. Once painted roses are dry, curl left and right sides of outer petals around a bamboo skewer to create a point. Work your way from the outside to the inside of rose. Curl inner petals just slightly by wrapping top straight down around bamboo skewer.

12. Add five paper sepals secured with floral tape to short stem. Wrap floral tape in a spiral down wire stem several times to create a thick roselike stem. Burnish stem with skewer to smooth tape. Cut 6 paper leaves and sandwich a 4-inch wire between. Use a glue stick to stick 6 leaves together with a 4-inch wire stem.
13. Secure leaves to stem with floral tape.

Resources"Van Gogh" brand water color paint. Green fibrous paper used to make sepals and leaves is from paper zone, paperzone.com. For the Princess Diana rose base color, we used a diluted cream (a mix of "white" and "yellow ochre"); for the tips and edges, use diluted "permanent rose." for the Peace Rose base color, use diluted "cadmium lemon yellow" and "titanium white"; for the tips and edges, use diluted "permanent rose." Recommended filter brands include Connaisseur and Western Family.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Paper Roses - Martha Stewart Crafts

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