DIY: Heart Shaped Valentine's Wreath with Coffee Filters

I decided to make a Valentine's wreath.  The only condition was: I could NOT buy anything.  All the supplies needed had to be already on hand in my house.
You can find many tutorials online on how to make a coffee filter wreath.  However, some of the tutorials call for dyeing each coffee filter one by one.  I'll show you how to make these beautiful pink paper flowers by dyeing coffee filters in only 3-4 batches.

Supplies used:
large piece of cardboard (you do save your large amazon boxes, don't you?!)
utility knife
pencil
medium glass or plastic round container for dye-bath
screwdriver (preferably Phillips head)
longnose or needlenose pliers
a package of 8-12 cup basket-style coffee filters (I had a package of 200 but still have plenty leftover)
small amount of red poster paint (or red water color)
medium or large craft brush
yarn or ribbon for hanging
strong tape

First, prepare your dye-bath:
Fill your container with cold water only about 1" deep.  Dip your brush in red paint and then rinse it in dye-bath water.  Divide your package of coffee filters in several batches (sorry I have no idea how many coffee filters I had in each batch).  Place the coffee filters one batch at a time into your dye-bath as shown below and remove immediately.  This gives you a beautiful ombre effect. 

dip-dyeing coffee filters in large batches speeds up the process considerably

Load wet brush with small amount of paint and slightly touch-up the edges of coffee filters (still in large batches).  Repeat the process with each batch.

Place the batches of coffee filters on some old towel to dry for several ours or overnight. 

With the utility knife cut a desired shape out of cardboard.  I ended up with two shapes.  One 13X16" heart "outline" shape (about 2.5" wide) and the smaller solid heart shape (the middle part of the whole).
In any case, just choose you own shape and poke holes with the screwdriver all over the cardboard (you can draw your dots first with a pencil).  The holes should be about 1.5" apart.

I punched too many holes, so ended up not using all of them...

Next, is an important step and it will speed up your project significantly in the end.
With the tip of longnose or needlenose pliers widen each hole to about 1/4" in diameter (of course, you could skip making holes altogether and just hot glue your flowers to the cardboard but I did not want to mess with hot glue this time).  
Separate dry coffee filters and make flowers (roses?) by pinching the middle and twisting as shown below:

Thread each flower through the holes in the cardboard. 

Repeat until you fill most of the holes.

You can use the finished wreath as a decoration around the house or make a hanger with a piece of ribbon or yarn and hang it on your front door.  Happy Valentine's Day.

back side of the wreath is not so pretty, but nobody sees it