Happy Monday! I have so many things to share with you this week! With only a few days until Halloween I have more decorating and treat ideas to post, and a Thanksgiving project that I LOVE.

But first, check out this colorful Coffee Filter project that’s perfect for preschoolers. Coffee filters are such a cool supply to add to your craft cabinet. Paint watercolors on their super-absorbent paper and you’ll see why.

The filter swallows up the water and the colors run together creating the most beautiful tie-dye effect. Preschoolers will love watching the colors blend and cutting out their own free-form leaves.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Coffee filters
• Watercolors
• Paint brushes
• Scissors
• Wooden dowel or stick
• Glue
• Yarn or embroidery thread

1. To start, protect your work surface. I put down wax paper.

Now, flatten the coffee filters and paint them with bright fall colors like orange, yellow and red. Be sure to use lots of water.

Watch what happens as more water is added – the colors blend and seep into each other. As the filter dries the colors will get brighter and more saturated.

2. Paint lots of filters, and then leave them to dry. This could take about an hour, depending on how wet they are.

3. Once dry, fold the filters in half and trim them into free-form leaf shapes. Have preschoolers use child-safe scissors. Cutting is a great way to build fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

4. Open the filter to reveal the leaf shape. Leaves can be taped to a window, added to a collage, or turned into a mobile.

5. If you want to hang your leaves on a mobile cut a few lengths of yarn. Put a dab of glue in the crease of the leaf and then place the end of the yarn in the glue. Press the sides together to seal the yarn in the crease.

6. Wrap the other end of the yarn around a wooden dowel, or stick you gather from outside. Hang all of the leaves on different lengths of yarn. 

7. The painted coffee filters have a stained-glass quality and look pretty hung in a window, where they can catch the light.

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