Michele Made Me

Series 1 – Part 2: THE FEAST OF THE FLOWER: Toilet Paper Rolls

by

Ten days ago, I started a series of posts called The Feast of the Flower in which I am creating 50 different flowers using 10 different media/techniques in order to, ultimately, craft a fantastic wall hanging! You can check out Part 1 of the FOF -Feast of the Flower- right here.

Today I had a ton o’ fun making flowers out of toilet paper rolls. I took some process photos to show how easy this was.
So, for my first flower, I cut a toilet paper roll into 3 sections.
I then drew petals on all the sections.

And cut away the excess to make 3 little crowns.

I curved the petals: two crowns with petals curved out, one with petals curved in. I also cut open, and removed a petal from the inner sections so that they would fit into the outer section.

And here is the first completed flower!
Next came this one. In my excitement, I kinda forgot to take pictures (the mind is going… sigh…), but it is very simple. Take 2 toilet paper rolls. Divide both into 3 sections to make 6 equal sections. Cut straight petals into each section, cutting progressively shorter for each. Curve the petals out. Fit the sections into each other by cutting the inner section open and removing a petal or two. The final middle section, which I also cut open, was rolled around a pencil to form a spiral. Flower #2, check!
For the third beauty, I cut a toilet paper roll in half. I also used a half inch section cut from another roll. It’s not shown here.
On these half sections, I drew some petals.
I cut the petals out and folded them down and out.
I also cut out little diagonal petals from the half inch section…
And fit the petals inside each other, as before, to make this third flower!
The fourth flower was inspired by the wonderous Flickr group called Cardboard Tubes ReCrafted. I don’t know if there is a flower exactly like it there, but there are definitely similar designs. Again, I forgot to take process pictures. Jeesh…
Essentially, all you do is cut 1 toilet paper roll into 8 equal sections. 7 sections for the petals, 1 for the middle. Flatten out the 7 sections. These are the petals. Leave the middle section round and cut 7 equidistant slits halfway through it. Fit a petal into 2 of the slits. Do the same for the rest of the petals. I then formed the curvy petals by bending them until it looked like this!
Flower #5, the last one, was a little more labour intensive but I didn’t mind because it turned out well.
For this flower, 1 and 3/4 rolls are needed. On the first tube, I drew my lines like so, and cut the tube into 2 sections: one tall and one short.
I then forgot to take pictures. Big surprise. But do you see what I did? To the tall section, I added petals and cut out the parallel lines, and to the short I added petals. From the other 3/4 length tube, I cut out longish petals and curved them in slightly.
I put them all together to make this baby, Flower #5! Tout fini!
And here is the whole family! I was going to paint them but I don’t know anymore. I kinda like their brown recycle-y character… Any thoughts?

See you again soon with more floral fun!P.S. Check out THIS toilet paper roll thistle craft available in the shop!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. creativedawn says

    Michele,
    You have just demonstrated that the toilet paper roll is a very good item to recycle and I am definitely doing these flowers. I can see so many possibilities! These flowers are AWESOME! YOU are a GENIUS!!!!
    hugz, Pam

  2. Debra says

    Michele-this is VERY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!And I love them unpainted! I wish you'd get your blog in Stumble-Upon. Your stuff is incredible and good grief-you should have 1,498 followers!!!! This is so cool!~Debra

  4. a good yarn says

    Unbelieveable! Who knew a toilet roll could be transformed into si many flowers? I'll never look at a toilet roll quite the same way ever again. Ann 🙂

  7. Ingrid says

    You have a beautiful blog. Love how it is laid out and your photos of how you make things. I love the brown tp flowers!

  8. Ana Jordán Davia says

    Hola:
    Estoy maravillada de lo que haces con unos trozos de cartón.
    Me permito el enseñar tu trabajo en mi blog poniendo un enlace al tuyo ya que estoy casi segura de que en mi pais no conocen las cosas tan bonitas que haces, espero que esto parezca correcto.
    Un saludo muy cordial desde Madrid, España.

  12. Kayelle says

    Hi, your ideas are wonderfully inspiring – would like to use some of these for children's projects at craft club. Thanks for showing us all the steps – very helpful. Keep up the good recycling work. Karen

  16. Gośka says

    Your ideas for using toilet paper rolls after "inspired me. " I found other use – a puppet of the rollers on the paper. You can see the performance on my blog:)

  21. Teri says

    I found you from another blog… these flowers are so amazing! I will definitely make these for my walls! I had to put these on my Pinterest! Thank you, sincerely, a new follower!

  27. Jen says

    I just saw this. You are a very talented lady and you have such a beautiful soul as you shared this. Thank you and kindest regards M

  31. Amber D says

    I don't know how you do it but once again you were in my top 5 viewed posts this year with your guest post on my blog linking back to these amazing flowers. In fact this year you were #1!!! Just so you know I'll be linking back to that post again this Friday 12/13.
    Amber
    http://www.lifelovegreen.com