The Pinterest Challenge Fall 2011: Toilet Paper or Art?

I am almost bouncing out of my seat not only to show you my pinterest recreation but to see everyone else’s projects as well. Not quite clued in yet? Well then let me give you a brief history lesson. Pinterest is a website that allows you to create hundreds of inspiration boards, you can “pin” any picture on the web that you like, and about 3 months ago Sherry from Younghouselove along with some other great bloggers came up with a challenge (read about Sherry’s bff’s that participated in the challenge as well, Katie’s project, Ana’s project, and Erin’s project). The pinterest challenge as it’s formally known, and our great community of design bloggers come together to pick a project or a picture seen on pinterest and actually try to recreate the project (hopefully with some of our own personal flair). Read more on this post about my previous pinterest challenge.

This go-round I chose these as my inspiration photos:

and this one:

If you can’t tell these are toilet paper rolls that someone has cut up and glued together. Originally from here and here. How fantastic is that!?!?!?! I’m in love.

So I collected toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls for months on end. I probably started back in July (it’s now November), with only a half-intention of actually creating this. I collected them from my office, I made my Mom and Dad save them, I even had a giant bag in my laundry room that I would stuff them into. It was insane. So when the Pinterest Challenge came along for the second time I knew I had this project in the bag, literally.

I began by cutting up each roll, kinda like slicing a loaf of bread. I had a plan to add a little more dimension to my project by starting the circles big and gradually having them get small as my project expanded. The first few cuts were about 2″ in length and gradually shrank down to 1/4″ in length. After I had made all my cuts I worked on a creating a couple different formations.

All had just slightly different formations and would have had different outcomes.

I landed on starting with a four point “star” and literally worked out from there.

For adjoining the ends I used a hot-glue gun and I worked merrily along for about three hours.

After I finished all of the hot-gluing and sustaining only one burn on my finger I took it outside to spray paint. Always make sure you spray paint in a well ventilated area. (Forgive me for being a bad blogger and forgetting to take an after of just the toilet paper rolls without the painted finish.)

You may not be able to tell in this photo because the piece is laying flat in the first picture, but the middle comes out further than the rest of the piece. I let this dry for a couple hours to make sure the paint set well and then I wanted to add a bit of greenish-yellow accents to it like one of the pictures from pinterest. I’ll show you again so you don’t have to scroll up.

You see how they have yellow accents inside some of the rolls? I took a paint brush and carefully painted the inside of a couple random spots so as to tie in other colors from my home. I ended up with this:

What do you think? It doesn’t look like toilet paper rolls does it? I’m not sure if this wall is the permanent home for it but I do know that I lurve it! I may play interior designer sometime soon and go home and rearrange my whole home and I’m sure this will find a new home on another wall. Here’s some more afters:

Here’s a breakdown of the charges:

• Toilet paper rolls: free, I used about 40 small toilet paper roll and maybe 10 paper towel rolls
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue: free, I already owned it
• Spray Paint: free, I already had the colors in my shed that I was planning on using
• Scissors, Pencil and Ruler: again all free because honestly I already had them

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Total Cost: Free!!!!

I love a good free project! Hope you all enjoyed this season’s pinterest challenge! I know I did.

Shannon Summers

Shannon graduated from University of North Texas with a bachelors in Communication Studies. Her creative mind was nurtured from the very beginning, starting with learning how to sew from her mother, and learning how to paint from her grandfather. She enjoys killing time on pinterest and treasure hunting in flea markets!

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