How To Make An Altered Coffee Filter Book


Supplies:
#4 Size Cone Coffee Filters
1/4" paper punch
Walnut Ink Crystals (or staining mixture of your choice)
Paper Re-enforcements
Ink pad (for inking the edges)
Scissors
Glue Stick
Artwork and embellishments


Please read everything first before you begin.



Lets Get Started:

For this project I'm using #4 size CONE coffee filters. Cone filters are much different than a regular coffee filter, so make sure you have the correct type of filter.

Use as many filters as you'd like for your book. In this tutorial, I'm using 5 cone filters. The filters I'm using are a brown kraft color, however, they also come in white.

Line up the filters so all the edges are going in the same direction.




If your filters have a tab on them make sure you lay them out so all of the tabs are on the bottom side.




Now, we're going to measure and mark the placement of the holes we will punch to bind our book together. Place the filter so the short side is on the left. On the left side measure down from the top 1/2" and in from the left 1/2" and make a mark. Do the same on the bottom, measure up from the bottom 1/2" and in from the left 1/2". - Or you could just "eyeball" it and make a couple of marks that look even.




Punch holes in ONE FILTER with a paper punch where you marked them.




After you've punched the first cone filter, you can use it as a guide for the rest of your pages.




Now that you have all of your holes punched, lets move on and start the FUN part.




Although, it's not really necessary, since mine we brown to start with, I decided to stain my filters in a mixture of Walnut Ink Crystals and hot water. I'm not sure what the ratio of crystals to water were here, I just mixed it until I got a nice dark brown color. You could use brewed coffee or tea for this also.

Dip the cone filters into the staining mixture and let them soak for a minute or so.




When I took mine out of the staining mixture I laid them on a CorningWare plate. I then put them in the microwave to dry. I put them in for 1 minute intervals and kept turning them until they were dry. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I'm not sure if this could potentially start a fire if left too long, but I would venture to guess that it could. So be careful, keep an eye on them and USE CAUTION! I will not be held responsible for any damages that could occur.




When my filters were dry, I took them out of the microwave and laid them on an old towel on my counter top. Then I ironed them flat using a hot iron. You'll notice how "icky" my iron looks. LOL This is not an iron I use for my clothes. It's my "crafting iron" that I use to dry my stained fabrics and papers. It's a mess! So if you're going to iron stained paper or fabric, you'll want to clean your iron afterwards if you need to iron your clothes. ;-)




Ok, our filters are punched, stained and dried, ironed flat and they look pretty good. But let's do some more things to make them look better.




I'm going to ink the edges of my cone filters. I have an inking tool and a stamp pad I'm going to use. Just ink around the edges, there's no right or wrong way to do it. Just begin and you'll find the look you like as you go along. BTW - I put a piece of waxed paper under my items that I'm inking.




You'll also want to ink your re-enforcements while we're in inking mode. :-) These will go over the holes we punched to make them stronger.




After your ink is dry, you can put the re-enforcements over the holes you punched. Put them on both sides of the filter.




The last step before we begin to embellish our book is to glue the opening on the front and back pages closed to make the pages stronger. Just open up the "pocket" on what will be you using for those to pages and put a little of the glue stick inside to hold them together. You'll want to leave the other pages open, so you can tuck little things inside of them.




Your pages are now ready to decorate. We'll bind the pages later after they're all finished.




I'll let you embellish you book however you like, I don't think two books would ever be the same. We do offer printable kits to make your coffee filter books. They are available HERE. They contain printable background papers, printable tags, printable images, printable words and all sorts of little things that you can layer on your pages to make the book your own. You could also use pictures of your children, family members or pets. The possibilities are endless.



Here are some photos of a book I made. I really love the way it turned out!
   

 

You can use binder rings, yarn, string, strips of fabric or anything you can think of to hold your book together. As you can see, we used several of the things mentioned. Just connect all the pages and tie them somewhat loose so the book will open.


Thanks for stopping by.

I hope you've found this tutorial on Altered Coffee Filter Books useful. If you'd like to submit photos of your finished project, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

©2008 Deena Davis - All rights reserved.
www.EweNmePrintables.com
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