In November, we make a lot of turkey crafts. We were looking for a new way to make a turkey and this coffee filter turkey craft definitely fit the bill. Our daughter thought using a coffee filter for a craft was very cool and then when she saw that she got to spray it with water wanted to make this craft over and over again. The final result turned out to be one of our favorite Thanksgiving crafts of this year.

What you'll need:

  • Coffee filter
  • Washable markers
  • Scissors
  • Turkey template
  • Construction paper (brown, red, orange)
  • Glue stick
  • Googly eyes
  • Paper towels
  • Spray bottle of water
How to make your Coffee Filter Turkey Craft

Notes: You need to use markers that will bleed when hit with water. Most Crayola markers will work (since they are all largely washable).

If you are like me and don't have a designated water spray bottle, you can cheat. I took the sprayer out of a bottle of very mild cleaning solution. I stuck the end of the straw into a big cup of water and sprayed it repeatedly until all the cleanser was out of the sprayer. Then I held the end of the straw in the cup while my daughter handled the spraying. Not ideal, but it will work in a pinch!).

  • Use the markers and color the coffee filter. Use different colors for the best effect. Put some paper or paper towels under the filter because the markers will bleed through the filter.
  • Lay the filter onto a small stack of paper towels. Lightly spray the coffee filter with water and watch the colors swirl together. If you spray too much all the color will just bleed through the filter and end up on the paper towel - we got around this by letting our daughter spray a blank filter as much as she wanted to get it out of her system, then switched to the colored filter.
  • While the filter dries, print our turkey template. Cut out the pieces and trace them onto construction paper. Cut out the pieces.
  • When the filter is dry, glue the turkey's head and body onto the middle of the filter. Glue the rest of the pieces on as well according to the picture to finish your turkey.
thanksgiving turkey craft
coffee filter turkey step 1
coffee filter turkey step 2
coffee filter turkey step 3
coffee filter turkey step 4