Toilet paper art on my $0 budget

Have you seen the amazing pieces of art people have been making out of toilet paper rolls? They have been all over the blog world for a couple of months and from the first time I saw them I have been saving up to make some. No.. not saving money, saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls. I have enlisted the help of family and friends to speed this process along. They all thought I was crazy until they saw the end result!

No one believes that these are made from toilet paper rolls and everyone asks to touch them just to make sure!

I love the end result! I hung these on the stairwell wall above the buffet in our dining room. This wall will be ripped down after we finished the basement so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the art. I am so happy that my $0 project turned out so well.

You can make these so they have pointy edges (like I have done) or rounded edges. I did the pointy so it matched my lamp and curtains. I tried one of each and they don't match :)

I won't give you a step by step tutorial on how to make these because you can find the instructions all over but I will give you a few tips. Here are a few places to find the instructions: Growing up creative (oldest so maybe the original!) and The How to Gal. 

1. It is better to use the white toilet paper rolls, the recycled paper ones (brown) don't paint as nicely. Having said that, the brown work great too. I made one out of each so I see the difference.
2. I cut the toilet paper rolls into 4 sections of 1 inch each. Measure your toilet paper rolls and divide into an even number. 
3. I started by making lots of the 4 petal flowers. Be sure to match the points very well on both sides. This is the trick to getting a clean piece.
4. Use hot glue to attach the pieces. Many sites recommend using craft glue and clamping it together until it dries...I am impatient and hot glue dries almost immediately. I did notice a few sections unglued after spray painting but I just glued them again and it was fine.
5. Spray prime before you spray paint. The brown paper rolls absorb the paint and dries almost blotchy.

I made 2 small pieces (shown) and one large one. I have not decided where to hang the bigger one yet but I will find a home for it soon. I was debating hanging it above these two, but I think it will be too much. What do you think? Does it look good as is or should I add the larger one too?

Each piece took 9 empty toilet paper rolls and approximately 30 minutes to cut and glue. Not bad!  Who would have thought!

Not only is this another craft on my $0 budget, I am actually filling in spots of my house that have been bare for almost 2 years. I am loving this :)