Materials and preparation for the creative process. How to make a coffee craft? Features of making appliques, paintings, souvenirs from coffee beans.
Crafts made from coffee are an original decor item and an excellent gift for loved ones. Joint creativity with the child helps to improve family relations, activates fine motor skills and the baby's imagination. But in order to make a stylish souvenir, you need to understand all the intricacies of working with coffee beans.
What are coffee crafts?
In the photo, a craft from coffee
A century ago, only wealthy people could afford to buy coffee. To prepare the drink, they roasted and ground the beans using every grain of the aromatic fruit of the coffee tree. Today this material is available to everyone. Creative people did not disregard it either, because the grains have a pleasant brown color, invigorating aroma, they are easily glued to the base, and go well with other natural materials.
The most interesting and unusual coffee crafts:
- aroma candles;
- refrigerator magnets;
- funny figures;
- coffee trees;
- applications on cardboard;
- stylish photo frames;
- pictures of ground coffee.
Making crafts from coffee beans allows a person to relax, forget about problems and worries for a while. The creative process helps to achieve harmony with oneself, to reveal potential, to acquire new skills and abilities. And a good mood during work and satisfaction from the result obtained allows you to better cope with daily routine duties.
It is equally important and interesting to make handicrafts from coffee beans with children. During the creation of an applique, picture or souvenir, the child's fine motor skills, creativity, imagination and fantasy are activated. Kids develop concentration, perseverance, accuracy, the ability to bring things to an end. In addition, working together unites the family, allows you to get to know each other better.
Preparing materials for coffee crafts
For the manufacture of handicrafts, coffee of different degrees of roast, having different color saturations, is suitable. You can buy beans in specialized stores, where the seller will help you choose coffee from amber to chocolate shade, with a matte or shiny surface.
You can experiment with the color of the coffee yourself. When heated, the grains first turn yellow, then acquire a rich brown color, and when overcooked they turn black. At the same time, tannins come out, essential oils are released. This effect is an additional source of cheerfulness and good mood during work.
To make it interesting for children to make coffee crafts with their own hands, think about the presence of bright details. Prepare some glittery grains to highlight the eyes, nose, or beautify a painting. To do this, paint a few items in advance with nail polish, glitter or spray paint. It is better to take such actions at the preparatory stage, before combining the grains into a general composition.
For gluing crafts from coffee beans with your own hands, you can use the following materials:
- Plasticine … The combination of this elastic mass and hard coffee beans will make a lot of fun figurines. Moreover, this type of creativity is available even to young children who do not possess the skill of gluing small parts.
- PVA glue … This material does not release harmful vapors, does not irritate the skin of the hands. It can be used to make a simple applique or stick the grains on a hard and smooth surface. The disadvantages of PVA include long drying, insufficiently strong adhesion of parts.
- Double sided tape … The material is ideal for making coffee craft for beginners. It can be used to make a beautiful applique, picture or magnet. But at the same time, you need to fill all the space so that dust and dirt do not collect on the sticky surface of the adhesive tape.
- Glue gun … With this tool, you can make complex volumetric crafts. When pressed, it releases a small dose of glue, which allows the parts to be held together securely and neatly. Before starting the creative process, it is recommended to practice and "fill your hand".
- Super glue … This material acts instantly and is the strongest and most durable. But at the same time, it is quite toxic and dangerous for the skin. You need to use the product carefully, in a well-ventilated area.
Various natural materials can be used to make interesting coffee crafts. Jute threads, burlap, paper, cardboard, wood go well with coffee beans. You can add seeds, acorns, buttons, sparkles to children's work.
Best coffee craft ideas
Before you start creating, prepare all the necessary materials and a workplace, take care of the lighting. Further, the most interesting coffee crafts.
Scented coffee candle
Decorating the candle with beans will give off a pleasant coffee aroma when heated.
Novice craftsmen can make a simple craft. To make it, you will need a wide unscented candle, wax glue stick, freshly roasted coffee beans. Stick them on the bottom of the candle, and then decorate the craft with star anise stars.
There is also a more complex version of the craft:
- First, prepare a low, wide glass container. Paint it brown, stick on the outside of the coffee beans.
- Break any unscented candle, melt it in a water bath, add a pinch of ground coffee.
- Pour liquid wax or paraffin wax into a decorated container.
- Plug in the wick from the original candle, wait until the product has completely cooled.
Please note that when working with candles, you cannot use Moment glue or other material with a similar composition, as it emits toxic fumes when heated.
Decorative cup made of jute and coffee
Jute is a natural fiber made from the plant of the same name. The threads of this fabric are sold separately in skeins and are used in the agricultural, food, and trade industries. They make excellent crafts in a natural eco-style.
Before you start making jute and coffee crafts, fill your glue gun with good quality quick-setting glue. Prepare a paper cup, lighter, burlap rag.
To make a decorative cup, treat the outer surface of the paper cup with PVA glue and wrap it with jute rope. Remove any loose threads with a lighter.
Cut the leaves out of the burlap, glue them to the cup with gun glue. Arrange the coffee beans in the shape of a bunch of grapes. Make the handle and frills with a lighter rope.
Lastly, fill the cup with insulation from an old jacket to create the illusion of foam or whipped cream. Pour a few drops of acrylic brown paint over the top for a chocolate-like finish.
Coffee bean magnet
A heart-shaped magnet decorated with coffee beans is a great sincere gift for a loved one.
How to make a craft from coffee beans:
- Cut a heart out of thick cardboard.
- Wrap it in brown cloth and secure with a glue gun.
- Stick the magnet on the back.
- Stick the coffee beans on the front side.
- Decorate the magnet with an star anise star.
When gluing coffee, follow certain rules. So that there are no empty parts on the product, arrange the grains in one direction, snake, from the edges to the middle. The magnet on which the beans are glued behind the smooth part looks beautiful. The middle sticks create their own special pattern, enhancing the effect of the naturalness and originality of the craft.
To decorate the magnet, you can use spices (cinnamon sticks, star anise stars) or ribbons folded in the form of a bow, star, knot. It will be interesting for girls to add a bright shiny detail to the craft. To do this, glue bright grains, painted with nail polish, as well as buttons, beads, rhinestones.
Hedgehog made of coffee and plasticine
Small children can also make coffee crafts. The simplest is a hedgehog with grain thorns. For making, you need mustard-colored plasticine, coffee beans, material for marking the nose and eyes.
Workshop on making coffee hedgehog crafts:
- Roll up a yellow plasticine ball.
- Extend on one side in the shape of a muzzle.
- Attach the peas of black plasticine in the area of the nose and eyes.
- Attach the coffee beans in the form of thorns.
Older children can make a more complex version of the craft. To do this, help your child mold the animal's body out of clay. When it finally hardens, wrap the body with jute twine, sprinkle the threads with a lighter. Next, cover with plasticine the part on which the coffee needles will be.
Note! By the same principle, other figures can be made from plasticine and coffee beans. Brown worms, fish, mushrooms, sheep look beautiful. Experiment with color, look for unusual color combinations, come up with fun details to decorate your crafts.
Applique from coffee beans
Crafts from coffee and burlap, panels and paintings are a wonderful decoration for the kitchen. For any application, even made by a small child, it is necessary to prepare a burlap base. The easiest way is to disassemble the photo frame, glue the fabric, and replace the sides.
Next, think over and apply the drawing. For children, you need to choose large figures with clear edges. Show them how to apply glue to the grains and press them against the burlap. At the same time, some of them can be painted in a bright color to focus on small details or to decorate the picture.
Adults can also spend their leisure time creating a panel of their grains. The plot of the picture most often plays on the coffee theme (cups, coffee pots, steaming drinks). Abstract patterns, portraits, maps of the world, outlines of animals look no less beautiful.
To make the panel neat, lay out the coffee beans in the form of a pattern, and then gradually glue them to the base. Pay attention to color saturation, size, bean imperfections. Use a minimum amount of glue, as the burlap holds the material well.
Topiary made from coffee beans
Topiary is a decorative element in the form of a tree with a spherical crown. This craft is especially beautiful in eco-style, when using twine from jute and coffee beans. In addition, to make the product, you will need a container for a pot, plaster of Paris, a glue gun, moss or dried grass.
Each piece of the topiary is made separately. So, a pot for a tree can be made from an old cup, a glass, a small flowerpot. Be sure to decorate it in eco-style using burlap, twine, dried spices, flowers, herbs.
To make a crown, take a plaster ball of the required diameter. Paint it brown so that no gaps between the grains stand out. Make a hole to attach the barrel. Glue the honeycomb coffee carefully. Fill the entire crown with beans.
Make the trunk out of a wooden perch. Treat it with glue, and then wrap it with twine. Remove the protruding threads with a lighter, press the material more tightly so that there are no gaps.
Next, assemble the topiary. Connect the trunk to the crown and set this part of the craft aside. Fill the pot with plaster of paris, stick the tree in there, wait for the material to completely harden.
Start finishing the "ground". To do this, you can paint it brown and decorate with coffee beans, or make it green and attach moss, dried grass, flowers.
Pictures of ground coffee
For the manufacture of crafts, not only coffee beans are used. At home, you can create beautiful pictures from ground coffee. Moreover, the quality of the drink, of course, does not matter, the main thing is to choose a beautiful shade.
At the initial stage, apply a stencil of the picture to the base. It should be a recognizable silhouette or a clear abstract pattern. Next, quickly fill the space with a layer of PVA glue. Until it's dry, sprinkle generously with ground coffee on the painting.
Brush off excess material onto the newspaper. Then take a nail file and carefully adjust the lines of the drawing. After complete drying, glue the frame, if desired, decorate the picture with sparkles or other materials.
Instant coffee can also be used to create a wonderful craft in the form of a painting. To do this, dissolve 3 teaspoons of the powder in 1 tablespoon of warm water, stir the resulting mass well. This thick is the darkest paint. For lighter tones, dilute with clean water using a saucer as a palette.
Note! When painting a sketch, remember that the further away the object is, the lighter and paler the paint should be. Foreground subjects are always well lit, crisp and dark.
Coffee frame
The easiest way to make a beautiful photo frame is to buy a finished product and decorate it with coffee beans. As a result, the souvenir is completely transformed, acquires an original look that is combined with other coffee crafts.
When purchasing a base photo frame, choose a product with wide edges. They can be decorated with patterns from different types of coffee, ornaments from dried flowers and fancifully woven ropes and ribbons. Insert photos only after the glue is completely dry.
How to make a coffee craft - watch the video:
Crafts from coffee are not only an opportunity to replenish an apartment with stylish original decor items. Doing an interesting job helps a person to reveal their creative potential, distract themselves from everyday worries, and improve their mood. And spending time together with children allows you to strengthen family ties, get to know your child better, activate his fine motor skills, imagination and flight of fantasy.
