Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Make Colorful Coffee Filter Pinata-inspired Letters

I don't know about you, but I've been feeling so inspired by all the warm weather lately.  It seems like everything around us is bursting with life, light, and color.  To bring some of that happy, airy, summer feeling inside, I made these fun pinata-inspired letters to decorate our bedroom wall.


Materials:
- coffee filters
- markers
- spray bottle
- shallow pan
- cardboard box
- tape
- double sided tape
- pencil
- exacto knife
- scissors
- white paint
- paint brush
- plastic bags

Directions:
1.  Cut out your letters from cardboard.  (I found that using an exacto knife was much easier than using scissors.)  Paint the letters white to help your colors stand out.

2.  Use markers to doodle on your coffee filters.  (Have fun with it!  It really doesn't matter what you doodle.  All your designs are going to be washed away anyway.)

3.  Spray your coffee filters to make the colors run.  Then, let the coffee filters dry.  (I placed ours on some plastic bags and waited overnight.)

Here's what the coffee filters looked like after they dried:

4.  Cut out strips from your coffee filters and tape them onto the horizontal sides of the letters to cover them.  (This way you won't see the raw cardboard edges.  The vertical edges are going to be covered by fringe.)
Oops.  I missed one edge on the "L."

5.  Cut out similar sized strips from your coffee filters and turn them into pinata fringe.  Use your double sided tape and normal tape to stick them onto the cardboard letters.  Be sure to work from the bottom upwards.  Also, wrap the strips around the letters to cover the exposed cardboard sides.



Here's what a finished letter looks like:


And here's what the fringe looks like up close:
And that's it.  Now we have a lovely set of pinata-inspired letters.  I placed them right above our bed.  I think they look nice there, don't you?



Thanks for reading!
(Psst-  If you liked this pinata-inspired craft, you can check out my number pinata or snack bag pinata.)