It’s a Friday night and I’m about to hit publish and go decorate the tree with Hubs while drinking a bottle of wine. It’s time to RELAX! But, in case you’re in a crafty mood tonight, here’s a project you can probably do without going out to buy any supplies–most of it uses recycling items from your trash bin! Have fun crafting and happy Friday!

Now, I’m sure you’re reading that title and picturing a craft your kids could make in school…which to be fair, would probably be cute. But I’m actually talking about using toilet paper tubes into a wreath, without anyone knowing that you are decorating using bathroom trash…unless you’re a blogger who willingly tells the world about it online, of course, like me.

To begin, collect several toilet paper or paper towel rolls. I save mine in a bin in the garage and use them for stuff like this occasionally.

Then, you’ll want to cut them into smaller sections, 1-2 inches each will work well.

I lined mine up on the floor to see how many I needed as I was cutting them. You can make your wreath any size you’d like so make one that fits your space and have fun with it.

Then, take a piece of string and start threading it through. You could also use wire for this if you wanted a  sturdier wreath, but the string works fine as long as you aren’t doing anything too heavy on the outside of your wreath.

 

Don’t worry if it gets all tangled while you’re doing this, it’s easy to straighten back out.

After it’s all threaded, make a sturdy knot to attach the two ends together in a loop. You now have your basic wreath shape finished! Easy, right?

Make a few adjustments as necessary to give it a nice, round shape, as as round as possible anyway. Now, it’s time to reinforce. I first tried masking tape, but anything would work.

After a trial run that resulted in a saggy wreath, I went back and just whipped up a batch of homemade paper mache paste.

And then I spent about 15 minutes reinforcing it, wrapping the entire thing in strips of recycled newspaper. (This project is a great way to use up trash in your house!)

 

It looked like this when I was done:

After letting that dry for a day or so, it was super sturdy.

(If you use the tape method, I’d suggest wrapping tape all the way around each seam. Again, the amount of tape needed will largely depend on what you are wrapping your wreath with, the heavier it will be, the more reinforcing you’ll need.

You need to do this well because if not the wreath will shift when you hang it up and end up being oblong and oval shaped instead of pretty and round like a regular wreath. I was running out of tape so I was too conservative and my wreath sagged too much for my liking, which I why I used the paper mache. Of course, if oblong is the look you’re going for, by all means, go for it!)

After you’re done taping, or paper mache-ing, start wrapping.

No, not singing this song, (which is awesomely random to see a middle aged lady with gray hair and tights rapping…not sure why it only has 90-some views!), it’s time to start wrapping the wreath with whatever garland you’re using. I know you were all confused there.

(Another side note, this one is pretty funny, too, even though it’s not an “authentic” ERBoH video.

Anyway, I used some gold and silver tinsel garland from Target and just started wrapping it all the way around and around the wreath. You’ll be amazed at how fast this thing transforms from trash into something fancy and fun. (You could also use yarn or fabric scraps…those would also be a cute way to use up whatever you have around the house! Be creative!)

When you get the end, fasten it somehow. My tinsel had some wire in it so I twisted the ends together. Tape would also work if you could hide it under a bow or something.

Then, I added some fabric to hang the wreath, stapling it together (and hiding the staples, of course). I even made a little hanger out of a dowel piece of a pencil and some strong to allow the fabric to be smooth and flat instead of bunched up on the wreath hook.

To make the little hanger, I took  a piece of scrap fabric and added some twine.

Then, staple the edge of the fabric over on itself to make a loop, with the twine inside it.

Then, just push the dowel rod pencil through.

I’m sure you could figure the next part out yourself, but to hang the wreath, wrap the fabric around the wreath and through the hanger, making a loop around the wreath. Overlap it as much as you want to get your wreath the proper height and then staple the fabric together to hold it in place. If you only staple the back piece of fabric, the staples won’t show.

I simply hung it on the little lip Hubs made me to the back of our wreath hanger (I talked about it more here) and that was it!

I might add a bow, or something else, but for now, it’s just plain, which I think is fine.

I wasn’t sure about leaving our FRIENDS frame up or not (it’s magnetic so it’s easily removable) but I decided to leave it at Hubs’ suggestion. Why not, right? They always leave it up on the show, even with their festive decorations.

So, there’s finished wreath number two for this year! For number one, see this post for my glitter monogram wreath!

What do you think? Worth saving your toilet paper rolls for a few months? I mean, this wreath literally only cost me a few cents for the tinsel (I think it was less than a dollar on sale…) and I think it’s really fun. Not as fancy as the first one I made out of the greenery, but still, totally festive. Plus, it’s pretty amazing when you think about what it used to be, I think. Three cheers for reusing and recycling!

Tell me which wreath you like most (Hubs votes the greenery one) or the coolest thing you’ve ever made with toilet paper rolls! 

Want more wreath action? I told you about making another wreath earlier this week, here. And showed you the final product here.