valentine swag.

When I found this adorable swag idea on a blog (one of those ones that you click, click, click and don’t know how you ended up there… I have no idea what it was called, but as soon as I find it, I will credit here.) I was a little sad anyways, because it was an old blog that hadn’t been updated in over 9 months. :( And she had some cute ideas!

So start with some plain old coffee filters. Since I don’t drink it, I bought mine at the dollar store; 200 for a buck. Pretty darn good deal.

Using a very small amount of food coloring, tint your water in whatever shade you choose. For me, it was a tiny bit of red to get a very soft pink color.

Drop your filters in one at a time into your colored water.

Let them sit for as long as you want. The longer they soak the more intense the color.

Take each filter out and squeeze the water out.

After you got your little pile of coffee filters, you can choose to lay them out flat to dry, or speed things up with a blow-dryer, or you can do what I did… pop them in the dryer, unfolded and 10 minutes later, fluffy dry colored filters.

(I dried 2 colors at the same time, and I would not recommend it at all. The colors bled onto each other and my sweet baby pink had blotchy brown spots. It’s okay, cause it doesn’t notice that much, but still disappointing.)

Next, gather together your supplies. Cupcake liners, doilies, dyed coffee filters in various colors, ribbons, newspaper circles and anything else you want to string on your swag.

The next step is as simple as stringing beads. I used embroidery floss and a needle and started stringing my paper goodies.

A knot with a dab of glue stops them from sliding down the embroidery floss.

Once your happy with your bunch of paper goodies. Tie another knot, head down the string about 12 inches or so and do it all over again.

I attached mine to the wall using thumb tacks and to disguise them I glued a tiny little pink bow onto it.

In between some of the paper goodies, I used the empty cardboard ribbon spools and hot glued a little piece of ribbon around them.

I don’t know why some crumply old pieces of paper are so appealing to me, but I love the way it looks.

I have coffee filter pom poms strung over my other door, but I didn’t get around to taking pictures today because my friend just got back from being in India for a whole month, and we had to catch up.

I’ll show those to you tomorrow… hopefully. ♥

Comments

[Amy]

Hi Tena! I don't mind at all, and yes I live in Sarnia, are you nearby?

[Tena]

So cute that I had to put it on my blog! Hope that's okay. Memyselfandtena.blogspot.com
Where in Canada are you, did I see somewhere you're in Sarnia?

[Mandy Smith]

This is adorable. You rock girlie!!!

[Mom]

So cute....glad you are doing this and not me. I am just a boring person when it comes to crafty stuff!!!

[Holly]

Cute!