Coffee Filter Roses

This is an incredibly easy, cheap, and satisfying teen craft! Perfect for Valentine's Day.
I first saw this on craftster too, and then found a woman who appeared on the Martha Stewart Show demonstrating her technique for making the coffee filter roses. The craftster version is a little rough and ready, the Mommy Makes Roses version is a little obsessive, so I kind of combined both versions.
Link to original Craftster tutorial
Link to Mommy Makes Roses website and her Martha Stewart tutorial

Instead of using the round basket style filters, I used the cone shaped ones, and instead of painting them individually, I dipped them in watered down paint and dried them before cutting out the petal shapes. One other thing I did that worked well for me was I just wired on some leaves from silk flowers- I had used the flowers for a wreath a while ago but knew I'd have a use for the leaves at some point so kept them around- being a pack rat can have it's (admittedly small) rewards! But the leaves look nice and give the roses a little stability. Be warned- more adults are asking about the roses than teens- some I made in black and red were liked more by the goth girls. The library is even selling them as part of the Valentine's Booksale, and I used one to dress up a book display!






Difficulty: 3 out of 5. It's an easy project, but takes one or two tries to get the knack of it- clumsy teens might get frustrated (but will still be able to make something kind of reasonable looking).

Cost: 1 out of 5. Cheap cheap cheap. I am assuming that you have paint and scissors? Is that expecting too much?

Supplies
$2.00
Cone shaped coffee filters (or basket style if you need to go even cheaper.)

$1.00
wooden barbecue skewers

$1.50
paddle of 24 guage floral wire

$1.50
floral tape

Hints or tips- well, the tutorial is really good, but I think making it right on the skewer is easier and more efficient than the corsage-pin thing KaylaWTE does. If you felt like being finicky, gluing a bead to the end of the skewer would be a nice touch.

Alternative easier instructions for younger kids or teens without crafty skill!