DIY Lotus Coffee Filter Flowers

So these are a sample of the flowers I made for the birthday party. I fell in love with the lotus flower after a visit to New York years ago. My Mum, a water colour artist asked me if I could pick her up a book at the Museum of Modern Art. I figured since I was there I might as well take a quick tour.

I was gobbed smacked and spent the rest of my weekend exploring the art museum. The best painting there is a huge mural of lotus flowers by Monet.

The only real difference from the original coffee filter rose et la Aunt Peaches is my version of roses are easier to make. The post is still under my DIY section if you want to refer to it.

For the lotus flower I changed the petal shape template and added a five point kirigami fold to create 10 petals per layer.

It took me forever to figure out the kirigami five point fold as all the instructions are for a square not a circle until I found this shamrock on Zakka Life. Yes my eureka moment: most kirigami projects are turning the square into a circle. Duh!! I will post the instructions for a five point fold (10 petal points ) in the DIY section on Saturday.

When I dyed the filters this time I used a combination of food colouring and acrylic paint. This can be very time consuming and a quicker way would be to use fabric dye. I was afraid of ending up with blue hands before our trip but I think if you have to make a lot of flowers this would be the route to take.

TIP I found 6 filters per lotus flower work better than 5 for the coffee filter rose. Since you are making deeper cuts to form the petals this gives the flower more volume but you will have one more cut per flower.

If you have any trouble understanding the kirigami folds hop over to Omiyage. Just so happens they have instructions for both 5 and 6 point cutouts to get you started.

Takeaway - Caribbean Party

So remember that birthday party with a Caribbean theme I did last weekend? It was not the best event I  have contributed to as many things out of my control were supposed to be done and never were carried out.

Seven Days Before

1. No cook - the house host's husband bailed.

2. No plan for rain. I spent way too much time coming up with a canopy.

Day Of
1. My husband, house host and I put up canopy left at 11am to get ready for 2 pm.

2. No tables delivered - we ended up with one table for the food and everything else. And an old bookcase which I turned into the bar.

3. The house host's table was glass and didn't want decor on the table. Scratch all the flowers I made.

4. Guests arrive no hostess. In fact no one came out the house for almost 45 minutes. Very awkward.

5. No birthday girl. One of the guests had to pick her up. You see this is what happens when the hostess does not host her party for her sister.

6. Birthday girl arrives at 3 pm - all is well: she is thrilled.

7. Husband takes over barbeque duties - all loved his burgers. And thank God for rum punch. Where's the promised beer? But someone did appreciate my sailboat drink stirrers.

So tired left before the deluge of rain. But yippee the canopy worked perfectly.

Lesson: never let your girlfriends who you love plan a party while you are on holiday..

Lotus vs. Lotus

Oh I was so inspired when I bought some origami paper in Ottawa I had to try making something. A very linear lotus flower. I think it would make a really cool corsage or boutonniere.

And speaking of Lotus and by association Emma Peel did you know my favourite driver finished 2nd in the European Grand Prix?  No not Emma - Kimi!

Now this is the closest I got to Kimi at Montreal but don't I look excited to be there?