How-To Dye Coffee Filters with Food Coloring

Learn how to dye coffee filters with food coloring and create beautiful flowers, wreaths, garlands and more! Perfect for weddings, baby showers, and all around the house.

If you enjoy crafting with simple basic supplies that pack a punch, you will really like this!

The result is something so versatile you'll want to pin this for the future because you never know when you'll need or want something colorful and cheap and that's when you'll want to pull out this helpful tutorial.

In the past, I've used coffee filters to make a wreath,

and to make gift topper pompoms and while I loved the natural look of the filters I chose (no dyeing required) I wanted something that screamed color, joy, and spring, and that's why I decided to give this a try.

How-To Dye Coffee Filters

*You'll want to make sure that you protect your work surface from the dye damaging anything. 

I separated my coffee filters into groups of 10 for dyeing. I made flowers and a garland and estimated that 10 would be a good number for each of these purposes.

Add food coloring to a glass bowl. 

I started with 10 drops but found 15 to 20 to provide the best amount of color.  If you don't add enough dye the first round and don't like your results, you can re-dye the filters. They are very forgiving.

Next, I added 2 cups of water to my glass bowl and then stirred to evenly mix the food coloring throughout.

Now add your filters.

They may be somewhat resilient to sinking so you'll need to help them a bit by pushing down.  Your hands are going to get dyed but it will wash off easily.

I let my filters soak for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Place several layers of paper towels onto a baking pan and pancake the filters between them and pat down (be aggressive) the filters to remove as much of the liquid as possible.

Now, you can go in two directions with this next step. 

Dyed filters can either be separated into single layers and allowed to dry on cooling racks OR they can place them on parchment paper on top of a baking sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes in a 250-degree oven. 

IF you go the oven route, check on them often and do not leave them alone...they're paper in an oven. 

You want to be careful! I stuck around the kitchen doing other things for the drying process.

Allow to dry, remove from the oven and enjoy!

Tips for Dying Coffee Filters

Some tips regarding the food coloring.....have fun and EXPERIMENT!!!! I added red to the blue, red to the yellow, and green to the blue to create some gorgeous colors. 

Right now, I have a colorful garland of these vibrant beauties hanging on my faux fireplace. 

I'll be sharing the garland tutorial in the next few days and a quick tutorial for using these as flowers to decorate mason jars for Easter.