My husband and I don't just drink coffee, we drink mountains of coffee every day. We could fill the Grand Canyon with our coffee consumption, and that is after having significantly cut back. We like coffee. What I don't like is throwing out coffee bags that cannot be recycled at the rate of three or four per week. I have been holding onto them in the hope that I would figure out a use for them. I am glad to say that day has finally arrived.
Last year, I started an online business selling hair accessories. It was pretty successful, in fact even more successful than I thought it could be. However, I also started working more with my freelance writing and found that I had to cut back significantly on the bow business. I still sell the accessories, but I no longer market the business and even shut down the web site so that I could focus more on writing. That doesn't mean that I don't still enjoy making bows, I just don't have time to do it that often anymore.
With my love of hair accessories and my need to find a use for the coffee bags, inspiration was born. I won't sell these, obviously, but I will share how you can turn your coffee bags into hair accessories for yourself, your daughters, nieces, sisters, neighbors, friends, and whoever. If you have a lot of free time, and a lot of extra coffee bags, pin dozens of them to a wreath for a fun and festive look. Whatever you want, just don't throw out the bags anymore, okay?
Step-by-Step Guidelines for Coffee Bag Flowers
Cut nine squares out of the coffee bag. Four should be of a uniformly large size. The other five should be a small to medium size and uniform as well. When I make flowers professionally, I measure the squares at four and three inches, respectively, but do what you think looks best.
Stack each size together and cut into circles. I usually use large and medium round cookie cutters to mark the circles so that they will be perfectly round.
Once you've done this, decide which side of the coffee bag you want facing out. For these purposes, I chose the outside of the coffee bag.
With your hot glue gun ready, fold each circle in half. Open the circle, then place a dot of hot glue on the center of the seam of the side that will not be showing. Fold closed.
Now fold the half circle in half again. Open and place another dot of hot glue on the seam.
Close the half circle so that it is in a quarter circle. Now you have a lovely flower petal. Next, seal with an alligator clip until the glue dries. That doesn't take long. In fact, if you fold and glue four large circles and four smaller circles consecutively, you should be able to use the same alligator clip for each one. Notice I just said four smaller circles. The fifth one has a different use.
Working quickly, place a circle of hot glue on one side of the fifth smaller coffee bag circle.
Place each of the larger coffee bag petals on the circle of glue, pressing tightly after each one.
Once you have all of your lower petals attached, add another circle of glue in the center of the flower.
Add the smaller petals to the center, overlapping on the seam of the previous level, like so. Conversely, you could place dots of glue on the ends of the petals themselves, but I find they stick better with the nice, even circle. When completed, your flower may look something like this. You can now even up the edges of the bottom petals or scallop them. If you have decorative edged scissors, they can look lovely as well.
Attach a lined alligator clip to the back of the flower if you will be using the flower as a hair accessory. They could also make cute brooches
Does your coffee bag have a stay-fresh plastic button thingie? I don't know exactly what purpose it serves as far as the coffee is concerned, but it is the perfect size for a centerpiece. Cut round the circle and decide which side looks best, then attach to the top of the flower.
You can also decorate the plastic thing by adding a decorative button (at left) or hot gluing a small rhinestone (at right).
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