Patriotic Coffee Filter Wreath

I wanted to add a little patriotic flair to the house - and wreaths are a fun and easy way to do it!
This one took me an hour or so (not including dry time).  And I love it!

I got a package of 100 coffee filters and dipped the ruffly ends in Rit dye that I had from last year's 4th of July project :)  Some of the dye I watered down a little, which gave me some subtle color variations.
I intentionally left the middles white, so that I could see some red, white and blue in the wreath.
Looking back, it would have been nice to leave some completely un-dyed so that I could use the white coffee filters as a section of my wreath, but this is fun too!

I don't like spending a ton of money on a wreath form, so I often use these foam plumbing tubes, and make my own!  (They are super cheap!) In the above picture it is wrapped in white fabric (secured with hot glue), but you can see a picture of the tube before it is wrapped in this other wreath post I did.  

Once the coffee filters are dry (which might take a long time...even after a day, I still got dye on my fingers), take 1 filter and pinch it in the middle...
Keep pinching up from the middle until it forms a cute little bundle with the ruffly ends.

Sometimes, I cut the middle off (below), so I could glue the puff down more easily.  Sometimes I left it on and hot glued the whole thing in the position I wanted.

Be liberal with the hot glue, and squish each coffee filter puff next to another one to achieve the look you want.

Here it is half way through...

And here it is all filled with coffee filter puffs!

I hot glued a loop of ribbon on to the back to hang it by.

I also added some sparkly stars to create a focal point, and add some of that white I thought was missing at the end.  I printed star shapes onto cardstock, Mod Podged over them with sparkle Mod Podge, and then cut them out and glued them on.

I finished it with only a week and a half until the 4th, but I will probably keep it up all summer - I feel like summer is just a patriotic season :)