Save your toilet paper rolls

No seriously, SAVE YOUR TOILET PAPER ROLLS!!!

You can make some pretty cool wall decorations by repurposing toilet paper rolls. Don't believe me? Keep reading!

I created this project based on two pins that I really liked on pinterest.

Here's where the toilet paper rolls come in...
{source}

this quote was so meaningful & it's a good reminder every day!
{pinned here}

Now here's where my creativity came in.

When I first saw the pin with toilet paper rolls I knew I wanted to re-create it, but I also knew I wanted it to be placed in an actual frame. While browsing through target one day I found a frame that was made like a shadow box & it was on sale at $5.00 down from the original $19 or something like that. I thought it was a steal & it was just the type of frame I was looking for. I didn't get a picture of the frame before I took it apart, actually I don't have a lot of before pictures since I forgot to insert my memory card into my camera before taking pictures {good thing I remembered before I completely finished this project}

I also knew I wanted to re-create this project so I told my mom & Andrew to save every toilet paper roll that we could. So we saved and saved until I figured I had enough, and I did!

So what I did was cut 4 equal slices of each toilet paper roll tube & with 6 slices created a flower by hot gluing the pieces together {similar to what is seen in the pin, but that one has 8}. Once I had 8 flowers I hot glued them in a square arrangement to create a frame similar to the pin as well. Once I had the square glued I took the entire piece outside to spray paint it. I used a teal color from Rustoleum.

this is a front view

this picture better represents the teal color

While that was drying I decided I wanted to embroider {at least it was my version of embroidery} the Nelson Mandela quote onto a piece of scrap book paper since I have a ton of it lying around. I chose a white piece of paper with black thread.

I then took a gray piece of scrapbook paper that would lay entirely behind the spray painted toilet paper flowers and act as a background for the quote. I measured and cut the gray piece of paper to fit into the frame & also to use as a template to trim the flowers.

At this point all that was left was to put the entire thing into the frame and seal it up.

here it is complete!
sorry for the terrible lighting.

This wasn't exactly what I had pictured in my mind when I began this project but I really like how it turned out anyway. I'm still not sure whether I want to paint the actual frame part white or just leave it. I still have time to decide since I plan on hanging this up as part of a picture collage on one of the walls in my next place.

The best part about this project was that it cost hardly anything. The frame was $5.00, I already had the spray paint on hand but I think it was around $3.00 when I bought it, I already had the scrapbook paper & thread, and all it took was some time to save the toilet paper rolls! An inexpensive, environmentally friendly {minus spray painting} project!

By the way I also entered this project in The Pinterest Challenge hosted by Rebecca at betterlifebags. You can head over to her blog from October 28-November 3 and vote for my project. There are some pretty awesome prizes. Thanks and I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!