Practical Imperfect Mom: Oh, poof!

My Sweet Pea is going to be 5 this month and I can hardly believe it. It feels like she was born yesterday and at the same time I can’t remember how my world was without her in it. 5 years ago today, we were having a huge baby shower and I felt like I was ready to explode. My how the time passes.

With the ending of October, I found some more free time (as much as a mother of 2 little ones can find), so I began birthday party prep for my extremely excited Sweet Pea. With every party, my goal is to have great looking décor on a very tiny budget. It sounds difficult, but it can be done. After all, that is what Pinterest it for! I found a super cute decoration idea that I just had to try. Not only did it work out great, I decided to do a tutorial for y’all and share the love. These cute little things don’t really have a name so let’s just call them “poofs”.

Here’s what you will need:

-Food coloring

-Water

-Small containers

-Paper towels

-Coffee filters

-Trays or baking sheets

-Needle

-Thread

-Twine

-Scissors

Step 1: Put water and food coloring into your small containers. You can make as many colors as you want (I chose varying colors of blue and teal to match our theme). You can make them as light or dark as you would like. Tip: All of the colors will be lighter when they are dry so if you would like a dark color be sure to use a lot of food coloring.

Step 2: Each poof requires 9 to 10 coffee filters. Separate your filters into stacks depending on how many you would like of each color for each poof. Tip: If your stacks are too large the color doesn’t distribute well. Try not to dye more than 10 filters at a time.

Step 3: Dip each stack into your desired color removing it quickly. It will only take a second to soak it up. Tap off the excess water. Place your filters upright on your tray or baking sheet allowing the excess water to bleed into the filter or drip off. Repeat until you have dyed enough filters to make however many poofs you want.

Step 4: When the filters are no longer dripping, separate them and lay them out flat on paper towels. Allow your filters to dry completely.

Step 5: Once your filters dry it is time to assemble them. Put them in stacks of 9 or 10 using the colors you would like your poof to be. Take your stack and fold each filter into a pie shape.

Step 6: Using a needle and tread at least 24 inches long, string all 9 or 10 filters onto your thread.

Step 7: Once all your filters are threaded, clip the needle end of the thread. Gently push your filters together, take both ends of the thread, and tie a tight knot.

Step 8: Open each filter and fan it out until all the filters are open.

Step 9: String your poofs in anyway you desire onto twine. I chose to string them vertically but really the sky is the limit!

I absolutely love these and you can make a ton of them for next to nothing. I made over 30 of these poofs for less than 5 dollars, and my living room is going to look great!