Toilet Paper Roll Sunflowers

As most of you know by now, I’m a lover of DIY projects.  My entire apartment is decorated with things I’ve made myself (or tried to make!) and this past week’s project was the bathroom.

I had a huge white space above my toilet that was just begging for some decor.  I wanted something a little more artsy and different than your average square frame, so I decided to make sunflowers out of toilet paper rolls (appropriate for the bathroom, right?)!

These sunflowers are so easy to make and are a great way to use up all those extra toilet paper and paper towel rolls that you have sitting in your recycle bin.  All you need is a pair of good scissors and some glue.

Toilet Paper Roll Sunflowers

Materials:

• 7-10 toilet paper rolls
• Paint
• 2 coffee cups, knitting needle, and tape (optional)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

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Directions:

1. Measure the space where you want your flower to be.  You’ll need to know how wide your space is so you know how large to make your flower.  For me, my flower has to fit in a 24” space.
   
2. Next I’m going to cut up all my toilet paper rolls.  The amount you need will depend on how big your flower is.  For a flower about 24” wide, I used 7 toilet paper rolls and 1 paper towel roll.  One toilet paper roll should yield you anywhere from 14-16 petals.
3. To make your petals, flatten your toilet paper roll.
4. Cut slices about ½ inch wide.  It’s helpful to build your flower as you cut so you don’t cut extra toilet paper rolls that you can use later on!
   
5. Here’s my flower so far.  I also have some extra petals just in case.  Make sure you take a picture of your design so you have something to refer to when it’s time to assemble your flower.
   
6. I like to paint my petals after I’ve cut them…that way I can paint the cut part of the paper as well.  If you’d rather paint the rolls before you cut them, go right ahead.  Either way will work.
7. To paint my petals, I turn 2 coffee cups upside down and tape a long knitting needle to the bottom of the cups.  After I paint a petal, I put it on the needle to dry.  The paint washes off the needle with soap and water, but if you’re worried about your needles, you could also use a stick, rod, or pencil to dry your petals.
   
8. Once your petals are dry, you can start gluing them together.  With a hot glue gun, add a little dab of glue to one side of the petal and begin creating the inside of your flower.
   
   
9. You can then begin gluing petals between the spaces of your starter flower until it’s as big as you want it to be.
   
   
10. As I began gluing, I decided to make 5 different flowers rather than one large one.
    

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.