Coffee Filter Fall Wreath

for about a month now i have been feeling the need to pull out the fall decorations. not only because fall's arrival is a happy reminder that some of my favorite holidays are just around the corner, but also because every time that i arrived home and looked at our front porch, i would see our spring/summer flower basket hanging on the front door and the 4th of july bunting still draped across the porch railing. i knew that if i had something to replace these decorations that i would feel far more motivated to take them down.
i had seen several fall wreaths that i liked on pinterest...

i really liked this rosette burlap wreath

this yarn and felt wreath made me happy too.

but i fell in love with the look of this coffee filter wreath

the day after i bought my coffee filters for my wreath, emily jones of jonesdesigncompany, whose blog is among my favorites, posted this wreath that she had made out of paint-dyed coffee filters. and although it is gorgeous, it seemed a little tedious to me and it wasn't quite as fall-ish as i was hoping to create.

i read the tutortial for the first filter wreath. she said that she had dyed her white coffee filters with coffee, which i thought sounded like a lot of work, especially since they sell beige coffee filters. maybe i'm just lazy, but i went with the less creative, less time-consuming, pre-colored filters for our wreath. and here is how it turned out-

i thought that the wreath needed some color to keep the beige wreath on our beige door from looking so bland. one of my favorite things about fall is all the warm colors, so i found these berries which had the reds and oranges that i adore so much. and i thought that the curly branches were fun and whimsical. 

here is a brief tutorial on making the coffee filter "ruffles" or flowers.

i folded each round coffee filter in half and then into uneven thirds.

i repeated by folding 2 more filters into thirds 

don't crease the folds, you want them to look loose and "ruffley"

pinch the bottom of the 3 coffee filter ruffle 'wedges' and twist a piece of wire around them.

you can either hot glue or wire the filter ruffles to your wreath form.

i twisted mine onto a wire form like this,

but a foam form and hot glue would work just as well.

i wanted my ruffles to look very full, so i ended up using about 175 filters, but if you like the looser look, just use less.

i put the branches and berries on first and then added the filters around them. 

to finish the wreath off, i attached our C monogram with fishing wire.

i thought about taking pictures of the process as i was making it, but i was too focused on getting it finished to take a break to get the camera.

and of course, paisley was a very eager assistant in every step of the wreath making and hanging. ;)