Have you ever thought about how many household items we use in our stamping? Well… there are paper towels for great papers and texture stamping, plastic wrap and waxed papers help create wonderful backgrounds, wooden bamboo skewers do double duty as book spines. This list could go on and on.

But… not today….. We are going to make something that which was first plain into bright vivid cards!

Get out those coffee filters hiding in your kitchen cabinets and drawers. We are going to brighten them up and stamp on them! These humble little papers make wonderful backgrounds for stamping.

Now, there are two kinds of coffee filters available. The first is the Basket Style filter for use on 8-12 cup coffee machines. These are my favorites as they are bigger so you will have more stamping space. This means bigger stamps! The second filter available is the Cone shaped, which is used for the smaller 2-4 cup coffee machines. These are nice for smaller cards or stamps. If you d use these you will need to cut off the bottom and side seam as shown in the following photo. You will need the following supplies to get started. I do recommend making several of these while you are at it….that way you have some in reserve for whenever you want them! They are very fast and easy to do, so making multiples won’t be a problem.

Coffee filters of choice

Tube Watercolors…. I did not use the artist’s grade here; these are the paints in plastic tubes. I found them in the art supply section in my local craft store, with the colored pencils. These are not expensive, and a little goes along way.

Flat or round paintbrush

Stiff cardboard at least twice the size of the filters used.

Plastic wrap to cover cardboard with.

Masking tape

A spray bottle of water

Paper towels

Water to clean brush with

Plain paper or an old plastic tablecloth to dry filters on

One Styrofoam plate

Here are the basic instructions.

  1. Cover the cardboard with the plastic wrap and tape it down tight in the back with the masking tape.
  2. Now lay down one coffee filter. Spray it with the water bottle. You want the filter nice and wet.
  3. Smooth out the filter with your fingers. No air bubbles.
  4. Now choose two colors of paint, one lighter than the other. Using two shades of one color works nicely, like light and dark blue. Squeeze out a small amount of each paint onto the Styrofoam plate.
  5. Dampen the paintbrush with water, and then pick up a little bit of the lighter color. Swirl it on your wet filter however you like. Be sure and blend the paint in to the filter, you do not want blobs of paint sitting on top. Leave some of the filter unpainted so you can add the darker color.
  6. Once you are happy with the lighter color…. Do the same for the darker paint, adding it wherever you left open spaces. Blend the edges into each other some, but do not mix the colors too much or you will loose the variegated effect.
  7. Take the wet filter off your work board and place them flat onto the plain paper or plastic table cloth to dry thoroughly. They will dry faster if you have them on paper to dry rather than plastic. They will also have lines and wrinkles in them when they are completely dried. You can use them this way (I do) or you can either iron them between two pieces of plain paper or set them under a stack of heavy books.

That’s it! Nice and easy huh? Here is what the basket filters will look like once they are painted and dried.

 

Now, I have made some samples using these wonderful papers. I hope you will

Give them a try. Use your imagination with your creations. They are very versatile. I have used them on handmade books, on Formica tags, shipping tags. They work real nicely in decoupage as well. The main thing is to have fun creating them. Enjoy!