Easy Dyed Coffee Filter Cabbages

Coffee filters are dyed green and crafted into easy and realistic looking cabbages! A budget-friendly and easy DIY for Spring and Easter, and fun to do with kids 🌸🌿

This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. My full disclosure policy can be found here.

Hey friend, are you looking for an easy Spring craft that requires minimal cost, yet delivers big decorating impact? These coffee filter cabbages are a must-make, and seeing them "come to life" is a little bit magical! Keep reading as I share the step by step details.

How to make easy dyed coffee filter cabbages

Before we get into the "how-to, here is a list of the supplies I used to make these easy cabbages.

Supplies Used:

basket style coffee filters
green acrylic paints or food coloring
hot glue and plenty of glue sticks
paper plates
disposable gloves
optional: instant coffee

Other:

glass or mason jar (clear)
bowls
plastic spoons

coffee filters, green paint, instant coffee

Let's get started with crafting coffee filter cabbages!

Step 1: Prepare dye bath

Fill a bowl with warm water and dissolve some green acrylic craft paints in the bath. You will need to stir to make sure the "clump" of paint is fully dissolved. I used green paints that I had on hand, which were a light lime green and a darker green. I mixed them together.

You can use green food coloring, but you will need to use a lot to get a deep green color. I found the craft paint to be a much quicker solution.

Note: if your green color looks too bright or fake, dissolving a tsp or so of instant coffee crystals in the dye bath will result in a deeper green color with more dimension.

steps to dye coffee filters and make cabbages

Step 2: Dye coffee filters

Stack 3 or 4 coffee filters, fold them in half and then in half again. Dip the tips of the filters in the dye bath, allowing the color to bleed into the filters. Dyeing them this way will result in variations of color, which mimics real cabbage leaves.

If you are finding the coffee filters are not absorbing enough color, feel free to submerge them in the dye bath until they are brighter.

Squeeze them to remove most of the moisture, then arrange them onto paper plates, being careful to leave the wrinkles and imperfections in place.

Step 3: Dry coffee filters

I found it quickest (and less messy) to dry the coffee filters in the microwave. Set microwave at 30 seconds, 50% power, then flip the coffee filters over and repeat until they are mostly dry. I overlapped my cabbage leaves slightly on the paper plate, allowing me to dry 3 at a time.

At this point, I laid each coffee filter cabbage leaf out on my countertop to fully dry, flipping them periodically. Remember that the more wrinkles your coffee filter has, the more it will resemble a real cabbage leaf, so don't flatten out any wrinkles!

Each coffee filter cabbage leaf will be unique, which is exactly what you want!

stacks of dried coffee filter cabbage leaves

Step 4: Make cabbages

I found that a clear glass was the most effective, because I could see the results. Here's how to make a cabbage on a clear drinking glass or mason jar.

Press the first cabbage leaf over the rim of a glass
Overlap the second cabbage leaf, and add a bead of glue to the rim where the coffee filters overlap
Continue in this manner, overlapping and gluing cabbage leaves, until the glass is full (see Step 5 above)

If you flip the glass over, you'll be able to see how the center ball of the cabbage looks. Each one will be different.

Gently pull the cabbage off the glass to reveal seriously realistic looking cabbages! Now you're ready to decorate!

Note: experiment with glasses that have different sized openings to make a variety of cabbage sizes!

I tucked coffee filter cabbages in my Spring hutch, along with my DIY Peter Rabbit decorative eggs.

Spring hutch with carrots, cabbages, dishes, Peter Rabbit eggs

You can see more of my Spring decorated hutch HERE.

Where else can you use coffee filter cabbages?

They will look fabulous on your Easter table, arranged with DIY Beatrix Potter inspired fabric carrots and even Vegetable themed DIY peat pots!

You can see more of my Easter decorated table HERE.

Spring table with coffee filter cabbages

Let me know if you decide to make coffee filter cabbages!

Pin to Save ❤

bringing beauty to the ordinary,

Comments

Marilyn HolemanMarch 24, 2026 at 10:32 AM
So cute! Thanks for sharing. Praying that the Lord will show you just the right house. Happy hunting!

DIY Beautify - Creating Beauty at Home