Coffe Filter Wreath

I'm pretty much forced inside these days with the constant downpour outside. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled we are getting rain. It has taken us out of drought conditions which we've been struggling with for a few years now. It has interrupted our many outdoor spring projects, which I'm bummed about. The thought of doing siding again during July and August isn't very appealing.

So I've been trying to stay busy indoors with projects I've been putting off. One of them is this wreath idea I found online that intrigued me. It's a wreath made out of coffee filters. It looked fun and inexpensive so I thought I'd give it a try.

First you have to buy a package of 200 cheap white coffee filters (less than $2). I didn't want a white wreath so I made up a couple bowls of tea. One I used some hibiscus tea which I already had on hand and the other just basic tea (any brown variety).  I put the coffee filters in the bowls and let them soak for varying times, the longest (deepest color) was 15 minutes. Wring them out and let them dry overnight.

Next step put together your wreath base, which in this instance is a cheap pool noodle ($1 buck) duct taped together.

Then start hot gluing those dried coffee filters onto the noodle. I scrunched them in there to create a tighter look. You could do it any way you'd like. Super easy project.

 

I think it's lovely for a spring wreath. I'm thinking a brown one in varying shades for the fall would be pretty too.

Christmas Glow

Isn't this picture absolutely adorable? I just love it. We went to the Santa's Workshop that was set up at the library on Sunday. It was such a wonderful free event that the Arts Council puts on and I'm so happy we decided to go. They had a wonderful Santa, meaning the guy had an actual beard and looked the part. There was no screaming and crying from my children (unlike the poor kid in front of us) and they rattled off the toys they wanted for Christmas. Have I mentioned how much I love this picture?

Now I must admit the picture didn't have this "warm, fuzzy feel" to it when I uploaded it this morning (thanks for taking the picture and sending it to me Dad). I spent a good twenty minutes with it in Photoshop to make it look like this. You see, occasionally I actually use my Bachelor of Arts degree. Today I thought I'd give you a quick Photoshop filter lesson in case you'd ever like to make your photo's "glow" like the one above.

Here is what the picture looked like directly from the camera. Before:

 Cute, but not perfect. Now first off you'll want to correct any Brightness/ Contrast issues the picture might have. I also changed the Color Balance to make it warmer rather than cooler. Oh and I made the tree bigger and blacked out the elf in the right hand corner.

Then all you do is:

1.Duplicate the photo layer.

2. Use the filter "Gaussian Blur".  Make it 5 pixels, or around that.

3. Then in your "Layers" window, pull down to "Multiply".

4. Brighten it up with either "Brightness/Contrast" or my favorite "Curves".

End result:

Doesn't it just glow? Gotta love those filters.