Coffee Filter Angels: Make these heavenly angels with coffee filter gowns and wings.
Supplies:
3 coffee filters
3-1/2-inch foam cone, such as Styrofoam
1 round toothpick
1-inch foam ball, such as Styrofoam
12 inches of 1/4-inch-wide gold ribbon
White thread; hot-glue gun and hot-glue sticks
1 gold plastic ring
Directions:
Center one coffee filter on the top of the cone. Push the toothpick three quarters of the way into the cone and filter. Push the 1-inch ball onto the toothpick to add the head. Center the second filter over the head. Tie a ribbon bow around the neck. Fold the third filter in half and pleat at the center to form wings. Tie in the center with thread. Hot-glue the center of the wings to the back of the angel at the neck. Glue the ring to the top of the head for a halo.


Fireworks Coffee Filter Flowers: Use these colorful red, white, and blue Independence Day Flowers to brighten your table on the Fourth of July!
Supplies:
coffee filters
chenille stems (red, white, blue, gold and/or silver)
red and blue watercolor paint
paintbrush
scissors
paper towel
Directions:
Place one of the coffee filters onto the paper plate and flatten out.
Paint the coffee filter with water color paint. Paint some solid red, some solid blue and others a combination of blue and red, leaving some areas unpainted. Move the coffee filter to the towel and lay flat to dry. Repeat with the second coffee filter. Leaving the center of the filter in tact, cut the coffee filter in strips, working you way around the circle. Cut a 1.5" piece off of one end of a chenille stem and set aside. Take the longer piece of chenille and poke it through the center of the coffee filter. There should be about 2" of chenille poked through. Turn the entire thing upside down and grasp the filter with your fingers. Gather it around the chenille and secure it by wrapping the extra piece of chenille stem that you cut off in an earlier step. Twist it around the part you are holding and turn the flower back upright. Manipulate with your finger until strips are spread out and it looks the way you want it to.

Champagne Candles: These champagne candles will look stunning as a decoration for New Year's.  These New Years Champagne candles are very easy to make if you are just starting out working with gel wax.  One tricky thing about using gel wax is trying to eliminate bubbles,  but since these candles represent champagne, we want them to be bubbly!

Materials:
2 champagne flutes
Gel wax Candle wicking (make sure you buy some that is compatible with gel wax) Bamboo skewer or pencil Yellow gel wax dye
Candle scent (optional)
Scissors
Small pot
Knife and spoon
Directions: Wash your champagne flutes and allow to dry completely.  Tie the wicks around a bamboo skewer or pencil and cut to the proper length of the flute, so they just touch the bottom of the glass.  Then balance the bamboo skewer over the glasses, so the wicks hang down the middle. Gel wax is very easy to clean up, so you don't need a "dedicated" candle cooking pot. The gel, once cooled, will simply peel off from the inside of the pot. Cut the gel wax with a knife, then use a spoon or your hands to pull out chunks of the wax to put in the pot. It's best  to over-estimate rather than under-estimate the amount of wax you need, since any extra is re-usable. Heat the wax over the lowest heat setting on the stove until it begins to melt. Stir to help melt the wax and create more bubbles. DO NO OVERHEAT: gel wax is highly flammable! Once the wax is melted, add one tiny drop of yellow coloring.  Then stir it into the wax with a spoon.  Test the color by spooning up some wax and dropping a small amount on some white paper.  If it is too yellow for your liking, add in some more wax to dilute the color.  If you would like to add a scent, this is the time to do that too. Pour the wax carefully into the prepared flutes.  Use a bamboo skewer to carefully stir up the wax once it is poured in the flutes.  This will help bubbles to form. (bubbles may not be seen until wax has cooled) Let the champagne candles sit undisturbed for several hours until set. Once the champagne candles are set, just trim the wicks to 1/4 inch or so and they are ready to burn.