Heena's Kitchen Diaries: Toilet Paper Roll Snowflakes

Chicago !!! as soon as you start saying where are you from... "windy city" rings a bell. Yeah, it sure is. This year 2015, we had snow for almost a week prior to the Thanksgiving week itself. First snowfall is always fun as being here for almost two+ years you expect it during the season, but it gets boring when it starts piling up later on.

Gracious it was only for that start week we had snow, and later now rains have started in this December month can you believe it... well there's no particular season it rains in USA but December seriously...??? Well ya it did. As nearing holidays and Chirstmas mood almost setting in there were no signs of snow at all and rains surprised us. It's cold, windy n on top the chilly frosty rains... I tell you we had it all till this year end. And we had snow "grainy ice" followed by rains and severe weather warnings this last week of the year. Totally home locked for almost 2 days and with an active kid so we decided to put this precious time to some home DIY.

I had never thought before to collect and make use to toilet paper rolls all these years, but with kids you need easy-peasy, junky crafty ideas which result in reuse and repurpose household things and in process turn them to something interesting and cheerful. This time i started accumulating the rolls left after using the toilet paper and the kitchen towel roll too and do something creative out of these. Not decided as to what, how and when but unless handy these things take a very long time otherwise.

This is a very very easy DIY and do give it a try yourself or with your kids too... It's fun, and you can make it a group activity too when you have a chirstmas get together party at home OR anytime DIY to keep these little munchkin minds busy.

I browsed and researched various Pinterest boards. Believe me you get excellent stuff and ideas from there. Never thought I would use one, but I used a handful of them for my DIY home projects. Though not all shown and tried work for all, beware and be careful if you are dealing with such internet ideas with kids. Though this was a non risky one, then too, FYI.

Materials required

Toilet paper rolls OR kitchen towel rolls
Ruler to mark
Pencil
scissor
glue gun *glue gun works best if the roll is thick OR regular school glue OR craft glue OR fevicol OR ( whatever is locally available used in sticking thick paper )
nails OR office pins OR push pins

So let's get started to make this BEST OUT OF WASTE PROJECT.

Process

The rolls are readily available in round cylindrical form, so for making snowflakes we have to flatten the shape and mark at appropriate intervals with the help of a ruler the thickness we need. I marked the rolls at 1 cm distance apart and cut it with scissors. There may or may not be scraps OR waste. So mark the distance to be cut accordingly if you are planning to avoid waste.

Cut many such rolls in the same size as the other and keep aside. Cutting all the rolls likewise in advance saves time and helps in assembling the snowflake quickly sticking it together.

Arrange the cut rolls according to the design you choose to make. Stick them together with glue gun as it is the quickest way to quickly get around OR you may use any locally available glue to stick the rolls, but i find glue gun sticks quickest and in no time. Do take care if using glue gun with kids involved in the activity.

Decorating

You may leave it as it is or decorate it with fancy striped or decorative craft paper a lot of options are available these days in craft stores, you can be creative with that.

I choose to spray it with gold/silver metallic spray.

Multiple Ways to use this DIY
- You can hang it as a Christmas ornament with a decorative ribbon / thread / twine and embellish your tree with it.

- I planned to make it as a wall decor for this Snowy Christmas.

Posting this before the finished product as my year-end DIY 2015 project.