Tutorial -Flower Wreath Made From Toilet Paper Rolls

My visits to Pinterest always inspire and motivate me to do wonderful things. I have been on the site A LOT lately and I have noticed that I am doing a lot more crafting than I used to.  The best part is that I am experimenting to make each project my own which is both exhilarating and soothing for someone like me.

Yesterday, as we sat on the patio enjoying the nice weather and celebrating Mother's Day as a family, I decided to try a project I had recently found on Pinterest.  I went to the artists blog to get instructions only to find that the entire blog was written in German (I think).  I could have used Google Translate but I didn't need to because she had fabulous photos which were enough to help me make a similar project

Can you believe that this gorgeous wreath is made from toilet paper roll tubes?  Obviously the wreath above was made for the holidays so I altered the concept a little to match the current season.  Below is a step by step tutorial:

Toilet Paper Roll Wreath
1. Collect toilet paper rolls until you have about 18.  Spray paint the rolls to your desired colors.  OR... alternatively, go to Michaels and pick up this set of 25 pre-colored tubes.  They cost $7.95- I used my 40% off coupon so they ran $4.75.  Sort of pricey but I didn't have to worry about the rolls getting warped from wet paint, nor did I have to wait for them to dry, nor did I have to clean up the mess.

These rolls are not covered with a coat of paint or dye; they are covered with a thin sheet of paper.

2. In order to make the petals of the flowers, you have to flatten and then cut the rolls so that they provide you with at least 6 similar size pieces.  Initially I tried using a box cutter to cut the pieces thinking that the edges would be straighter but the box cutter was much more difficult to manage than i thought it would be.  Long blade scissors were perfect for the job.

Not all of the pieces are uniform in size and my cuts were sometimes wonky but I decided that all of this just adds to the charm of the project.

3. Assembly: I initially used E6000 to glue the petals together, and I'll tell you why.  My mom was at our house for Mother's Day and I didn't want her to feel neglected or secondary to my craft project, so instead of whipping out my glue gun and an extension cord, I used a tube of glue and tried to do the adhering on the down low. While I know this was the right "Mother's Day" choice, I will tell you, it is not a good crafting solution.  in fact it was a bit of a nightmare.  Glue gun, glue gun, glue gun.  There. I said it 3 times fast in hopes that you will use one.  After my mom had left, I pulled mine out to finish my last few flowers and I was done in like 2 seconds plus the bonds were waaaaay stronger and cleaner.

This is a photo of the flowers waiting in line to be bonded because the wet glue took so friggin long to apply.

This is a flower after being assembled with E6000.  The wet glue sort of warped the cardboard where the petals connect.

This is a picture of the assembled flowers posing for the final look, but those icky craft brown undersides simply would not do!

Oh dear - now they are just showing off...here we have flower acrobatics.

4. The next step is to paint the interior of your flower.  Initially, I painted the interiors the same color as the exterior but the matchy/ matchy look did not appeal to me.

I decided to add some interest to the flowers by using paints that were a little lighter or darker than the exterior color.  I was trying to get a distressed look. 

5. The next step was arranging the flowers into a circle so that there were at least two connection points between every pair of flowers.  Once I had the larger circle, I created a smaller circle on top of it making sure that the color distribution was dispersed properly.

6. Then I added an assortment of color coordinated buttons as the center of the flowers.

And there you have it.  A very simple and inexpensive project with a ton of possible variations.

I made a stack of additional flowers to explore other ways to use them.  I thought about making garland, a mobile, adhering them to canvas, attaching them to twinkle light, using them in table centerpieces and even as candle holders.  I haven't made a commitment yet though...any other ideas?