Halloween Toilet Paper/Paper Towel Roll Eyes

d4c3572756ce29d16d3b6c53b4c5e163

What a great idea to do a FREE decoration for Halloween. As a kid I always loved going to houses who decorated and gave me great memories when I was Trick-Or-Treating. Sometimes just the simple decorations were just as cool to me – although I absolutely loved the houses that gave me chills to walk up to.

For this decoration you just need toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls and glow sticks (get these at a dollar store where you can find a large package of bracelets, necklaces etc. for a dollar). Cut slits and ovals and anything else you can think of in these tubes. Don’t worry about the exterior of the tubes as it will be dark and no one will see anything except the glowing eyeballs.

Hang them from fishing line, stick them in bushes, or stick or hang them in trees. Think of all the nooks and crannies that these can go into. When that special night starts to happen snap your glow sticks to turn them on and stick them inside the tubes.

PS: This time of year they also have those look alike candles that are small that are actually a light bulb which you could use.

New Years Centerpiece

557192_492902850753602_329466776_nUse a large clear glass vase.Place four to six small gold/silver glass ornaments in the bottom (you can get these on clearance now). Put a toilet paper roll in the middle and place ornaments all around the toilet paper tube. This gives a round nesting area for the candle. On top of the toilet paper tube place silver.gold ribbons that you have curled. On top of that place a white (in glass jar) candle on top of the ribbons. The 2013 sign was created by cutting pieces of paper to fit the photo areas of the frame. each was hand written (or if you are computer savvy this can be done on the computer). Great centerpiece. (You could also try using all black and white ornament balls) (You can spray paint old ornaments to give uniform look also.)

Faux Wrought Iron Decorations

I mentioned to my family that I’m collecting toilet paper tubes for use on some projects that were bouncing around in my head.  And an odd thing happened.  At every family function, every dinner party, every chance meeting since then, I have been inundated with toilet paper tubes.  They hand them to me when I least expect them, neatly packaged in Kroger bags, fully confident that whatever I have in mind for them is worth the extra effort.  At Christmas, I was given a bag of them along with my Christmas present.  Kinda nice, but apparently when folks look at me right now, they think of toilet paper tubes.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at mixing some quilling techniques and toilet paper tubes to come up with some faux metal wall art to spice up my Southwestern theme kitchen.
For this project I used:
A large amount of toilet paper tubes
Several Paper Towel Tubes
Aleenes Tacky Glue
Metal look Spray Paint
3/8″ Balsa Wood strips
I started by cutting the 3/8″ balsa wood strips into 10″ long pieces to form my squares and then glued them together with tacky glue.
The paper towel tubes were used for the straight pieces.  I simply cut along the length of the tube, flattened it out and used a scrap of the balsa strips to measure 3/8″ strips cut lenthwise from the tube.
The toilet paper tubes were cut in 3/8″ strips across the width of the tube to keep the curl.  Simply cut along the length of the tube, flatten out and mark 3/8″ strips across the width.  This will result in 3/8″ curls.
Using some examples that I found on the internet of wrought iron wall art, I created four 10″ squares.

I curled the cardboard with the end of a paintbrush where I wanted curls and used the tacky glue to glue it as I went.

With these squares, I started by dividing it into four equal parts and then creating the same pattern in each part. I simply created as I went and used the end of the paintbrush to make any curls needed.

Once they were completed and dry, I then spray painted them with metal-look paint.  Unless you get up close and personal and actually touch them, they look totally like metal.  But didn’t cost nearly the price.

I now have fancy looking wall art and spent next to nothing to make it.  In fact, my toilet paper loving family actually provided most of the materials.  You can’t beat that!