11 Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids and Preschoolers

Start here: three coffee filter crafts that always work

Coffee filter butterflyThe one everyone searches for, a three does itCoffee filter earthBlue and green scribbles, spray, doneCoffee filter flowersThree filters make a bouquet in ten minutes

11 coffee filter crafts for kids, with pictures

1. Coffee filter butterfly

The child colours a coffee filter with markers, sprays it with water, then pinches it in a clothespin or pipe cleaner body.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, pink, blue, purple and yellow washable marker, water spray bottle, 1 wooden clothespin, 2 small googly eyes, 1 black pipe cleaner piece, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the filter with all 4 colors.
2. Spray it with water so the colors bleed together. Leave it to dry.
3. You gather the filter in the middle and pinch it in the clothespin so it spreads into two wings.
4. Glue 2 eyes near the top of the clothespin. Bend the pipe cleaner into a V and clip it in the top.

2. Coffee filter flowers

The child colours filters, wets them so the colours bleed, then scrunches them onto a pipe cleaner stem.

You need: 3 round white coffee filters, washable markers, spray bottle of water, 3 green pipe cleaners, clear tape

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles each filter with markers.
2. Spray with water so the colours bleed. Let them dry.
3. Pinch each filter in the middle and scrunch it into a ruffled flower.
4. Twist a green pipe cleaner around the pinched point as a stem, and hold it with a little clear tape.

3. Coffee filter snowflake

The child folds a coffee filter, snips notches from the edges and opens it up, optionally colouring it blue first.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, blue marker, water in a small cup, spoon or dropper

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles on the coffee filter with the blue marker.
2. Drip water on it so the ink spreads into soft blotches. Let it dry.
3. You fold the dry filter into a wedge.
4. Snip small triangles from the folded edges.
5. Open it up flat.

4. Coffee filter turkey

The child colours a coffee filter with markers, sprays it so the colours blend, and it becomes the tail behind a paper body.

You need: 1 coffee filter, red, orange and yellow washable markers, water in a spray bottle, brown paper, 2 googly eyes, orange and red paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child colors the filter with marker and you spray it with water so the colors run. Let it dry flat as the tail.
2. Cut a large brown circle and a smaller one. Glue the large circle on the lower middle of the filter as the body.
3. Glue the smaller circle on top of it as the head.
4. Cut an orange triangle beak and a red teardrop wattle. Glue them on the head with the 2 googly eyes.

5. Coffee filter apple

The child colours a coffee filter red, green or yellow, wets it, and adds a stem and leaf.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, red washable marker, water spray bottle, brown and green paper, glue stick

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the filter with the red marker.
2. Spray it with water until the color bleeds, then leave it flat to dry.
3. You cut a small brown rectangle and a green leaf from paper.
4. Glue the stem at the top edge and the leaf next to it.

6. Coffee filter earth

The child scribbles blue and green on a coffee filter and sprays it so it blends into a planet Earth.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, blue washable marker, green washable marker, spray bottle of water, 1 sheet of black paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles large patches of blue and smaller patches of green on the filter.
2. Spray it with water so the colors bleed together.
3. Let it dry flat.
4. Glue the dry filter in the middle of the black paper.

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7. Coffee filter fall leaves

The child drips or sprays autumn colours onto coffee filters, which are then cut into leaf shapes for a garland or window.

You need: white coffee filters, red, orange and yellow liquid watercolour, dropper, brown twine, clear tape

How to make it

1. Your child drips watercolour onto each filter so the colours spread and blend. Leave them to dry.
2. You cut each filter into a leaf shape with a short stem.
3. Tape the leaves by their stems along the twine, spaced apart.
4. Hang it in a window.

8. Coffee filter jellyfish

The child colours and wets a coffee filter, then tapes ribbon or streamer tentacles underneath.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, blue and purple washable markers, water spray bottle, strips of crepe paper streamer, 2 googly eyes, clear tape, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the coffee filter with the markers.
2. Spray it with water so the colours bleed together. Let it dry.
3. Cut the filter in half, curved edge at the top.
4. Tape streamer strips behind the straight bottom edge so they hang down.
5. Glue the 2 googly eyes on the front.

9. Coffee filter monster

The child tie-dyes a coffee filter any colours, then adds as many googly eyes, pipe cleaner arms and paper teeth as they like.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, washable markers, water spray bottle, googly eyes, 2 pipe cleaners, white paper, tape and glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the coffee filter with the markers.
2. Spray it with water so the colours bleed together. Leave it to dry flat.
3. Tape 1 pipe cleaner behind the filter on each side, sticking out as arms.
4. Glue different size googly eyes in the upper half.
5. Cut small white triangles and glue them in a row below the eyes, points down, as teeth.

10. Coffee filter rainbow fish

The child tie-dyes a coffee filter with markers and water, then adds a tail, an eye and punched foil scales.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, washable markers, spray bottle of water, blue paper, foil, 1 googly eye, 1 sheet of light blue paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles the filter with markers and sprays it with water. Let it dry.
2. Glue the filter flat in the middle of the light blue sheet as the body.
3. You cut a blue triangle and glue it at one side, point touching the filter, as the tail.
4. Glue the googly eye at the other end and small foil dots across the body as scales.

11. Coffee filter sunflower

The child colours a coffee filter yellow and orange, wets it, then adds a dark centre and stem.

You need: 1 coffee filter, yellow and orange washable markers, water in a spray bottle, brown paper, green paper, light blue paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child colors the coffee filter with yellow and orange marker.
2. Spray it with water so the colors run together. Let it dry.
3. Glue the filter flat near the top of the blue sheet. Cut a brown circle and glue it in the middle of the filter.
4. Cut a green strip and glue it below the filter as the stem.
5. Cut 2 leaves and glue one on each side of the stem.

Nothing matches that filter. Clear it and try again.

Coffee filter crafts for 3 year olds

Three of these a young three can do almost alone: Coffee filter butterfly, Coffee filter flowers, Coffee filter earth. No exact cutting, no small pieces, and the glue stick does the rest. For the others, you cut and they glue.

Markers, a spray bottle and a 3 year old

Washable markers bleed; permanent ones do not. Set the filter on a plate or tray before spraying, and use a fine mist, since a soaked filter turns one muddy color. Three or four squirts is enough.

A three year old colors and sprays alone, and that is most of the craft. Pinching the butterfly in a clothespin, taping the jellyfish tentacles and cutting the fall leaf shapes are the adult parts.

Filters dry in about an hour on a towel, faster on a sunny windowsill. Light comes through them, so tape the finished butterfly, sunflower or earth to a window rather than a wall.

The same filter fits a holiday: the turkey for Thanksgiving, the snowflake for December, the earth for Earth Day and the fall leaves as a garland in October.

More crafts for preschoolers

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• Crafts for 3 year olds
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• Fall crafts for preschoolers
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• All crafts for preschoolers, by theme, holiday and letter

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