Craft Tuesday: Paper Towel Roll Upcylcing!

I use a lot of paper towels. Probably too many. I have been trying to cut back and use more dish towels, but sometimes it's just easier to use something disposable. So what to do with all these paper towel rolls? Hmm. How about I make some wall art!

I have seen it done before with toilet paper rolls, which are exactly the same material (and diameter), but the rolls are different lengths. Paper towel rolls are 11" long, while the toilet paper rolls are about 4.25" long. So, if you are cutting your rolls 1" thick, then that makes it a bit tougher, doesn't it? You end up wasting that little bit of roll... well, I suppose you aren't wasting it (it was trash previously), but you are making an unnecessary cut!

I made mine to hang in my bathroom, which is kind of my low-budget room. But once you get a glossy coat of spray paint on this bad boy, you can hang it anywhere!

For this project, you will need:

• 6 paper towel rolls (they're not all pictured. I used about 60 pieces, with 11 pieces per roll, I had some left over)
• Hot glue gun (a very strong crafting glue will work too)
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Pen/Pencil
• Spray paint (not pictured)

First, flatten your rolls. I dragged the ruler across the creases to make them neat and crisp. Mark off every inch on each side of the paper towel rolls, then connect the lines, creating 1" sections down the roll. Cut at each line.

This is where you can get creative. Play with what you want to do. Here are a couple of different designs I played with. I really like the random look. Just spread them out and then group them back together. You can adjust to make certain pieces do something specific, and then have random around it too.

Don't be afraid to cut the roll slices to different shapes and sizes to give it a layered look. The flower-like design that has the rolls cut in half looks really good. Imagine if you continued to add those halves. It would look like a rich, layered flower! Make sure to think about what colors you want. Do you want your whole piece to be one color? if so, you can wait until after you glue it all together to spray paint it. If you want individual pieces to be different colors (for example, if you are doing a grouping of four sets of four like in the last picture, maybe you want one of the sets of four to be a different color, whether it be the corner set or that center set) then you will need to spray paint the pieces before gluing them together.

After you decide on a design and how you are painting it, execute accordingly. If you are painting first, make sure to wait a full 24 hours before gluing. If you are gluing and then painting, make sure the glue is fully dry (which is pretty quick with hot glue) before painting.

It has been a busy, rainy week for me, so I have not had a chance to paint mine yet. As soon as I do I will post pictures of the finished project! Get excited!