Crafts
Mother's Day
SpringToddlersPreschoolers27 Comments
I love flowers for spring, and these pretty coffee filter flowers for kids are perfect to make for Mother's Day!
I’m thinking about Mother’s Day crafts and what to make for Grandma this year from the boys. My mom loved the tissue paper contact paper flowers we made for her last year.
Instead of using tissue paper this time, we used coffee filters to make these flowers, which opened up a lot of fun to color them!
Colored Coffee Filter Flowers for Kids to Make
I really only intended this to be for Henry, but George hopped right up in his chair. So I got him setup to try it, too.
I put in a little bit of water with food coloring in the three primary colors into several ice cube trays. My goal was to invite color mixing as part of this art project.
Discover even more color mixing fun with a cool kid-friendly experiment!
I handed the boys some paintbrushes and coffee filters and let them go at it. I happily painted some coffee filters along with them.
George amazingly did a couple coffee filters with the paintbrush! I was thrilled!
Henry was very slowly working on just one coffee filter, trying his best to make green. Just making lots of spots of yellow and green all over his coffee filter.
In the meantime, George found a new method to dye his coffee filters. And this spurred a lot of enthusiasm for the boys.
George crunched up his coffee filter and shoved it into one of the ice cube sections of colored water. And pulled it out.
Ta da! Completely dyed!
Henry took off doing this as well, mixing his colors. First dipping his coffee filter in blue, and then in yellow. Of course, that makes green!
Next up, was red and then blue. I asked the boys to make an educated guess about what new color they would make.
Purple, of course!
This new method that George discovered sped up the coffee filter painting process dramatically!
The boys dyed coffee filter after coffee filter until I had no more coffee filters. I ended up digging to the very, very back of my craft supply closet!
We laid the wet dyed coffee filters out on paper towels for a day or so to dry. They might have been okay the next morning but I didn’t want to chance it.
Create Beautiful Coffee Filter Flower Bouquets
Once everything was dry, we made flowers out of them, using pipe cleaners, that I got from CraftProjectIdeas, as stems.
There’s not really just one method to make a coffee filter flower. Feel free to play around and do what works best for you.
I grabbed the middle of the coffee filter and kind of twisted. Then with the middle in a point, I tightly wrapped a pipe cleaner around to secure it in place.
I tried to get the boys -mainly Henry – involved in this process but he just wasn’t grasping it. So I did all the flower making, while Henry and George picked out each flower’s stem.
Once the pipe cleaner was on, I messed with the flowers to make them look more like real flowers, puffing them up here and there.
Henry has been very clear about who gets what flowers. He sorted them out into bouquets and popped them into our DIY yarn wrapped vases.
Love yarn? Deep dive into all things yarn crafts for kids!
I told you we did quite a few!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms!
What are your favorite homemade Mother’s Day gifts to make with kids? Share your cool and creative ideas!
WANT TO SAVE THIS ACTIVITY?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox so you can access this activity later! Plus, you'll get simple activities from us every week!
Nerdle says
Amazing experiences of lovely children!
Capstone High says
We tried this in our kindergarten, kids enjoyed a lot & they were very happy doing these type of colouring. Thank you so much for posting. http://capstonehigh.com
Chanda says
I love this idea. Thank you!
Betty says
How do you get the food coloring off their hands?
Jamie Reimer says
Just soak in water and soap — or take a long bath. It’ll come off. Just not fast.
KarenP says
No worries! It will be off by their high school prom.
Marilyn says
When I worked in Pre-K, we made these by drawing or coloring them with washable markers. When we had them all covered, we sprayed them lightly( some loved to spray and were a little wetter) with water in spray bottle. Then we let them dry. We also made butterfly wings this way and added a clothes pin for the body or a pipe cleaner. The colors were really bright.
Elizabeth Norman says
I need help with my toddlers arts and crafts
Jamie Reimer says
Hey Elizabeth – what do you need help with? What age are they? What are they into?
Toddler Approved says
Love these and shared them over at Life Your Way yesterday
Jules says
I just did this with my 2 kids.. Waiting for them to dry… Fabulous Mothers Day idea!! Thank you!!!
Kylie @ Octavia & Vicky says
I am definitely going to make some of these with my little one for her three grandmas.
Jill says
You can do something similar with washable markers & a spray bottle. Color first with the markers, then spray lightly with water from the spray bottle & turn it all around so the colors run together. Then let dry.
Teach_Ohio says
Just don’t use too much water or the color washes out!!
crystal@growingajeweledrose says
These are gorgeous! What a fun activity for the boys too!
Becky says
Is it easier to paint on the coffee filters with water & food coloring? My daughter isn’t enthused about painting coffee filters with store bought water colors.
Jamie says
I think so. This is much more watery, so it spreads very quickly. The boys didn’t get bored that way.