Toilet Paper Roll Art

When I painted our living room, I wanted something new for the wall. Something fun and 3-dimensional. Something simple. And, most of all, something that was really cheap or easy to make.

I found something that met all of my requirements on Pinterest! What would I do without Pinterest???

Here’s all you need to do to make your own work of art.

First collect a whole bunch of t.p. rolls. Make sure they are empty. You don’t want white bits of toilet paper hanging from your masterpiece… ;o)

Then mark each roll with a pencil every 1-inch.

Cut them into sections on each line.

Crease at each end so they have that nice petal-shape.

Now you want to paint each one. Some crafters suggested spray painting them. Others suggested spray painting each one individually in a gloved hand to keep them from flying away while spray painting them. Some suggested spraying the entire piece when complete. A few mentioned that if you sprayed them too heavily they got too wet and icky from all the paint.

Whoa! Did painting a bunch of t.p. pieces really have to be that complicated???

I chose my own method. I set up a tv tray, lined it with a plastic garbage sack. Got some acrylic paints (I chose 3 colors instead of just one: gold, black and espresso) and painted each one by hand. First I did all the insides, then I did all the outsides. I watched Downton Abbey while I worked (if you haven’t seen it yet, you HAVE to check it out!) which made it fun and go really fast. Acrylics dry really fast and they were done before I knew it!

This next step also seemed very complicated…. I have no idea why??? That’s why God created glue guns.

Some used craft glue or white glue and held the pieces together with clothespins, leaving their slow-drying projects to look much like a wooden porcupine. I prefer my trusty old glue gun on low heat. Instant dry and no pins!

Begin gluing your pieces together however you choose…

I did mine in this sort of amorphous blob because I liked it the best.

I love the way it looks above the chair! 

But I also liked all of these shapes…

 these squares are from Full of Great Ideas

 

  the rectangle shape from SimplyRealMoms

 I love this one from The Mayberry Home Journal! It reminds me of a chrysanthemum. I think it would be gorgeous done in a bright purple-y magenta color!

 

{Twenty} Something did them on canvas backgrounds for a totally different look!

Tons of great options to match all kinds of decors! So have fun, be creative and start saving those toilet paper rolls!

Snowflakes

Two Sundays ago, one of the girls at our Family Nite service at church showed us all how to make these beautiful snowflakes! Since we can’t always depend on the real thing here in the PNW, I made some to hang in our living room windows…

Apparently the outside was jealous of how wintery it looked inside… ;o)

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to make these yourself… Sorry, some of the pictures didn’t turn out as well as I would like. But hopefully, you’ll get the picture!

1. Fold your piece of paper (don’t use heavy cardstock paper) so that you have a square. We used some old legal-sized paper. If you use an 8.5x11 piece, you’ll have less waste. Cut off the rectangle piece left over.

  2. Leave your square folded in half.

3. Beginning at the fold, cut two strips on either side. Stop just before you get to the center of the triangle. Don’t let your two cuts meet. Leave about an 1/2” space in between the two cuts.

  4. Repeat one or two more times, making sure your cuts don’t meet in the center. Leave that space! The more cuts you have the lacier your snowflake becomes

5. Open up the square. Bring the two loose ends together and tape into a roll. Be sure to use invisible scotch tape. You can make the roll as tight or as loose as you want. Just do each of the pieces the same way.

  .6. Turn the snowflake over.

7. Bring the next two points together and tape. You can have a bit of overlap if you like.

  8. Flip it over again. Bring the last two points together and tape. Again, you can have some overlap. If you’ve done more cuts, keep flipping and taping until you are done.

9. Repeat steps 1-8 six more times!

*This is where the pics start to get a bit hard to see… Sorry about the white on white!

 

10. Tape 3 of the sections together in the middle where your points joined. Make sure they are all going the same direction. Unlike in this pic… Oops! ;o)

11. Staple the top points together.

12. Repeat steps 10 & 11 for the second half.

13. Staple the centers together. Then tape the two halves together where the points meet in the middle.

I left mine just plain, but the girls at church added some sparkle to their snowflakes!

I tried making one out of a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper. I really like the two-tone look but think it would have been better with one more cut for a more even look.

It was also way too big to make a snowflake out of! But I think they would look lovely hanging just like that! Decorations for next Christmas???