How to Dye Coffee Filters the EASY Way!

'Tis the season of ruffled pink and red doily-type things.  Am I right?

My daughter, Chloe, who is only six by the way, has been talking about Valentine's Day for weeks now.  What?

I'm not even sure how she heard about it (probably school), but she has had all things pink, red, white, and heart-shaped on her mind ever since!  So, in honor of her love for heart-shaped girly things, we decided to do a little craft decor project together!

We started by dying about 100 white coffee filters pink!  Using red food dye and a shallow bowl of water, we mixed up about 6 drops of red dye to roughly 1 1/2 cups of water (temperature didn't seem to matter).  The coffee filters will dry quite a bit lighter than they seem when wet, so if you're going for a deeper pink, use about twice as much food coloring.

The great part about this process is you don't have to dye each filter individually, and you don't need a vat of RIT dye lying around, either!

We separated the packs of coffee filters into groups of six, or so.  Hold the filters together by the base and simply dip in the food dye/water mixture.  The filters will soak up the water quickly, so you don't need to leave them sitting there for more than a couple seconds.  Let any drips fall off and transfer to a paper towel lined cookie sheet.  Let dry overnight.

Tips:

* If you're going hog-wild with this, you could also lay down a garbage bag lined with paper towels.

* We held out the base of the filters so they wouldn't get soggy and collapse.  This kept our fingers clean and made it so the filters could also be used as cute treat wrappers. 

Once dry, these darlings are perfect for all kinds of Valentine or spring time crafts and baked goods.  We used these dyed filters as cookie baskets in our super easy Valentine's Day cookie recipe.  They're crazy simple, really moist, and super cute!

Hugs & High Fives!
♥ Holly