Aurora and Gray love to make things for my husband and I. Whether it’s a drawing or a toy wrapped up in a blanket that they’re giving as gifts, I love the sentiment and want to encourage it! So, this morning we sat down to make a little project together that they could give to someone on Valentine’s day. Crafting with a two and three year old is quite an undertaking, but I really like doing process art like this because there’s no way for them to “mess it up.” They got to color, and I helped them turn their designs in to coffee filter flowers!
![](https://www.parentsavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PicMonkey-Collage.jpg)
Here’s how we made our works of art:
- Gather your supplies, you will need coffee filters, washable markers, pipe cleaners, eye droppers and scissors.
- Fold your filter in to fourths.
- Instruct your preschooler on scissor safety, then let them practice!
- Cut a petal-like edge on your folded filter, scallops, zig sags and fringe are nice!
- Color the coffee filter with the washable markers
- Experiment with different designs!
- Use the dropper to drip water on to the filter, this will cause the ink to bleed and a beautiful watercolor design to unfold!
- Iron the coffee filters between two dry paper towels on low. This will dry out the filter and set the design
- Poke a pipe cleaner through the middle of the filter and make a ball on the end. Then, fluff the flower in to a nice shape and your gift is ready to give!
![](https://www.parentsavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC_2746_edited-1.jpg)
I love the beautiful designs the kids came up with! We experimented with drawing lines, drawing circles, and just drawing crazily all over!
![](https://www.parentsavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC_2753_edited-1.jpg)
Aurora has already made it very clear that one of these are for daddy, and one is for her friend James… I wonder if I’ll get one too. 馃檪
![](https://www.parentsavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC_2758_edited-1.jpg)
For now, I think I’ll keep them in a pretty vase on my counter until Valentine’s Day rolls around. Real flowers never last very long, but the memory of our time making these coffee filter flowers will last forever!