How to Dye Coffee Filters using Coffee and Food Dye

I’m back!

I’m back! It has been a long time since my last blog post and I’m happy to say I am here to stay. One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is consistency, at least it has been for me. Because of this I have been doing my research and taking notes trying to figure out new ways to improve my consistency and help me stay on track. One way I plan on doing this is by narrowing my posts down into categories. For example, this months DIY posts will be focused specifically on coffee filters and the recipes will be all about sandwiches. Furthermore I apologize for my absence and hope to get things back on track.

How to Dye Coffee Filters

Today I want show you how I Dye my coffee filters. You are going to need to know how to do this for the next few blogs posts coming up this month. I have tried a few different methods and this is what seems to work the best for me.

Supplies:

Cheap white coffee filters ( 4 cup and/or 12 cup depending on what you are making)
Cheap instant coffee grinds, I throw my left over morning coffee in also.
Red food coloring (or any color you like)
Old cake pan
old bowl & wooden spoon
rubber gloves, unless you don’t mind having multi colored hands for awhile 😉
water

Step 1 : Add your morning coffee to an bowl along with some instant coffee grinds. Add more or less depending on how dark you want your filters. I like to do some light ones then throw in a little more coffee grinds so I have darker ones, also. Doing it this way also gives me a nice variety of dark and light to chose from. Use your wooden spoon to press the filters down in the coffee so they are completely covered in coffee.

Step 2: Gently squeeze the coffee filters over the bowl so they are not dripping wet. Separate the filters into small piles and arrange on an old cookie sheet so they dry evenly.

Step 3: Set your oven to the lowest possibly temperature ( mine is 170 F) and bake the coffee filters. You want to check on them about every 10-15 minutes so they do not burn. Each time you check them you are going to want to rearrange them by putting the more dry ones on top and the more wet ones on the bottom. This will help them to dry quickly and evenly because it helps the heat circulate.

Dyeing with Food Coloring

I just gave you the 3 basic steps to coffee dying coffee filters. So now let me show you how I dye them using food coloring. You are basically just doing the same thing except with food dye rather then coffee. When I do this I use the dry, pre-coffee dyed filters. I do it this way because it makes the pink a little more grungy looking, which is what I like.

Step 1: Next, add Red ( or whatever color you like) food dye to water. I use a small glass bowl and about half the bottle of red food dye which will make a darker looking filter.