Easy Coffee Filter Wreath - made difficult :)

I know, I know - these coffee filter wreaths have been all over blog-land for the last year. That's about right for me...usually takes me a little while to jump on the bandwagon :) But I'm sharing the one I made last week anyway - because I love it!
Difficult isn't exactly the right word for this project, but as often seems to happen with me, I managed to add several steps to what should have been a super-fast, simple project! But I think it still turned out right for my taste, so, what's a little time, if the end result is great?

I wanted a more vintage/organic design - pure white is a bit too fussy for me. So off I went to buy unbleached filters. White was the only choice available, so I decided rather than go to several stores searching I'd just do white. But really - could I JUST DO pure white? Of course not. So I decided to tea stain the filters. I tossed a half dozen tea bags into a pot of boiling water and added the filters. I removed the pot from heat and let the filters "brew" for about 20 minutes and then spread them out to dry by our pellet stove. Any reason to spend time near the pellet stove right now, watching the flames dance while warming my tushie & toes, is welcome :)All 250 of them layered on my funky, chunky long table...looked kind of neat!
I had a straw wreath form I bought for 75 cents at a thrift store. I removed the plastic. Seemed like the right thing to do. Wrong. Straw bits were flying every direction when I touched it! Six of the coffee filters wrapped around the wreath and secured with hot glue took care of that issue. Not likely I'll buy straw again, but if I do, note to self - leave the plastic wrapper on!

Next I had to decide how to arrange the filters. The crimped look they had before their tea bath was pretty much gone. So I decided to fold each filter in half (sorry-didn't think to take pics of this part), then lightly fold in thirds, creating a fan shape. Then I hot-glued the point of the fan to the form. Repeat about 200 times, filling in as you go....and there you have it!
I knew before I ever started it would look perfect tied to this old frame - which set me back a whole 25 cents at a yard sale last summer. It's almost invisible in these photos, but the detail on the frame is really beautiful. And it was already naturally "distressed"!
And the burlap-ish ribbon was something I picked up on a whim a few weeks ago. Wasn't sure where I would use it exactly, but knew it was perfect for something!
My darling daughter-in-law has some great ideas for a statement wall using this...hopefully I'll get around to putting that together and posted before summer!