Paper Towel Tube Rose DIY

Welcome to the March Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by My Pinterventures.  If you aren't familiar with the Pinterest Challenge, it's a monthly event that challenges us to not just be pin hoarders, but to actually make it happen! 

So, for this month I chose to make a rose out of empty paper towel tubes and use it to dress up a cardboard container.  My pin inspiration happens to be roses made from empty toilet tissue rolls. I fell in love with the design shape and thought it quite different from the usual toilet roll crafts. I chose to use paper towel rolls instead because some think using toilet rolls in crafts might be unsanitary - although you can now buy something called paper craft tubes that look just like the real thing at craft stores. Also, I tweaked the method used to my liking just a bit in making the rose! 

This post contains links to products, if you purchase something after clicking on my link I may earn a small commission to help with my craft expenses (at no extra cost to you).Thank you!

To start, you'll just need a few items you probably already have:

• Empty paper towel/toilet rolls
• Flower pattern
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Paint (gold leaf)
• Skewer stick
• Hot glue gun/glue sticks

Begin by cleaning off any paper residue on the tubes with a damp cloth and let dry.

This is a picture of the toilet paper roll rose  I admired on Pinterest. Pretty and perfect, isn't it? Too perfect, in my opinion, for a toilet paper roll flower!

And below is a copy of the pattern that was used to make the rose. I just couldn't see how the petals in the rose became so wavy and smooth using a plain pattern like this. I know the edges were curled but you can see how wrinkled the paper roll is, and it is rather rough, not smooth, to start.

So I drew and cut out a six petal flower pattern with curvy edges to help compensate the wavy look.

And then outlined it on flatten paper tubes .  .  .

 and cut out five flower pieces.

 To begin forming the rose, I cut out one petal from the six petal flower .  .  . 

 and use it to .  .  . 

 roll into a closed cone shape for the center of the rose.

 Next, I cut out two petals from a six petal flower to use as the first layer of the rose.

 Then, cut the flower in half  to shape the second layer.  

 The third layer is the four petal cut out.

And the fourth layer, is the five petal cut out.

The 5th layer is the full six petal flower. I made additional 1" cuts toward the center on each petal to make them easier to curl. Have you ever tried to curl a toilet paper roll? Well, a paper towel roll isn't any easier! It can crack and bend, especially where it's connected and divided if you aren't careful! How on earth is that pin rose so smooth and pretty?

Anyway, since I'm using my rose to decorate the top of a cardboard container, I painted all the pieces, including the box, in gold leaf to look like metal. And curled the petal edges after they dried, using a skewer stick.

 To assemble, I glued the first layer together at the side edges, adding additional glue to the middle and inserted the center piece (which I had to cut almost in half, to fit)

Next, the second layer was glued together at the edges, and the first layer inserted and glued down into the middle of layer two.

 Layer three was glued together at edges and layer two inserted and glued down into the middle of layer 3. Continue gluing together remaining layers, four and five and inserting previously glued layer in the middle until all layers are glued together for a completed, beautiful rose.

 To attach the rose to the top of the gold leaf painted box, glue down an additional full rose layer on top and .  .  .

 glue the completed rose to the center top layer that's there.

I'm really loving this paper towel tube rose look! 
And the gold leaf makes it all look like a beautiful metal container!
Just perfect in any décor!

My only caveat for this pin is that the paper tube flower is not as smooth 

and curvy as the original pinned rose appears to be in the photos. There may be a few cracks and nubs along the way. But it's very attractive and worth making none the less! Perfect for any project you might have!

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Now let’s see what other Awesome things Pinterest inspired! Head over and visit the other hosts to see what they crafted, cooked, built, or tried!

                             

Erlene - My Pinterventures  Lauren - Mom Home Guide

Debbee - Debbee's Buzz  Laurie - My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies
Marie - DIY Adulation  Julie - Sum of their Stories
Marie - The Inspiration Vault  T'onna - Sew Crafty Crochet
Debra - Shoppe No. 5
Roseann - This Autoimmune Life  Terri - Our Good Life
Lisa - Blogghetti  Marci - Stone Cottage Adventures
Leslie - Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Cherryl - Farm Girl Reformed  Kelley - Simply Inspired Meals 
 Joanne - Our Unschooling Journey
Pili - My Sweet Things Jenny - Cookies Coffee and Crafts  

Gail - Purple Hues and Me   

Sam - Raggedy Bits  Beverly - Across the Boulevard  

Samantha - Little Bits of Home Kristie - Teadoddles  

Shirley - Intelligent Domestications Kelli - Olympic Nest   

Chelsea - Making Manzanita 

Ola - J'adore Le Decor Rebecca - SimplePractical Beautiful 

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