Hearts and Flowers Wreath... and a blizzard!

Today was the perfect day for crafting. This is the view from our deck door...

That's right this is the bottom of the window halfway up the on the door! And this is what the view off our deck looked like.

And while the blizzard raged on, I was cozy inside making this hearts and flowers "wreath".

Yesterday I showed you that I cut a foam base into a heart shape and mentioned that I was dyeing coffee filters.

I dyed about 50 filters I think, using neon pink food coloring.

I mixed the food coloring with a little water in a bowl. Curled up the filters into a flowery shape and dipped just the ends into the dye.

Since our stove has a pilot light (which always keeps it just a little bit warm) I placed batches of wet filters onto a wax paper lined cookie sheets and let them dry in the oven for about an hour.

The result was a soft graduated pink to white coloring.

Then I began filling my foam with the filters.

To do this I added a small dot of white glue to the bottom of the filter and used a small dowel (about the thickness of a pencil) to push it into the foam.

I filled and filled and filled the foam with my filters. Placing them pretty close together so the tightly packed ruffles looked like flowers.

Once the entire foam piece was covered I glued ribbon around the edge of the foam to cover the unfinished edge.

I also glued a loop of ribbon on the back to hang the wreath from. And since the back will be visible through the window on my door I traced the foam shape onto some brown craft paper and glued that onto the back. It's gives it a neater look than just having the foam.

And because it's still snowing I'll have to wait to show you how it looks hung on the door, but I I'm happy with the results.