Upcycled Rolled Paper Frame!

Upcycled Rolled Paper Frame!

This frame is visually stunning with lots of texture and pops of color!

However...it's menace runs deeper.

It was the most tedious and time consuming project

I've ever wrangled my kids into doing.

It all started like this.

I had been planning this craft for a while...and my husband was out of town,

so it seemed like a good time to catch up on projects.

My nearly 12 year old son said "hey mom, can I play Diablo?"

and I said "Yes, but help me with this project first".

Famous last words.

I similarly convinced my 10 year old daughter to play along as well...

so we had the whole crafty family working together.

Minus the 5 year old who was in and out and playing his heart out. (lucky devil)

We begun this escapade at 4:02 pm...

and finished with the last shutter click at 8:49 pm.

Completely SKIPPING dinner!

No worries, we had Marshmallow Mateys at 9:00 pm.

(Note: I would not do this again)

But we made it through all of:

Barbie the Island Princess

Brave

Frozen

and part way into Wreck it Ralph.

for this:

You will need:

Paper

(It's a great way to recycle old magazines, paper the kids brought home from school...or junk mail!
We also added some Astrobrights Paper in there for some bright pops of color.)

Wooden frame

(upcycle one you have on hand, or get one to refinish at the craft store..my advice: think small!)

Paper cutter

(you could use scissors...but that would make this project suck even more)

Tape roller

(you could use glue...but that would make this project suck even more)

Either a quilling tool or a toothpick

(just something to roll the paper around)

Hot glue/gun

Paint/spray paint for the frame

Time....lots of it.

and movies to play in the background...or an audio book!

Let's begin...right...like I've totally convinced you to make your own!!!
Hahaha.

I used the paper cutter to cut half inch strips.

Cut magazines and Astrobrights paper!

Now, fold all those strips in half.
fun, right?

We used quilling tools to get the rolling started and then
mostly switched to just finger rolling.

Alternating magazine strips and paper strips.
Using the tape gun to tape on additional strips...and finally taping the strip to

itself once we were satisfied with the size of the coil.

Over and over and over again!

At this point...the point of no return...maybe an hour into the process...
we thought we were rocking it!

They looked great and we were cranking them out!

And then I put them on the spray painted frame...ouch.
This was going to take forever to fill that sucka up!

Don't give up! Maybe this would be fun for a family reunion!
Everyone could sit around and roll and chat...many hands make light work!

My daughter got tired of rolling, so she switched to just folding the strips...
that made it easy for me to roll and use the already folded strips...you

just have to make the most efficient system.

Half way! Onto another movie!

I decided to hot glue them in place as we worked...no chance that the tape
on those things would give up and unroll!

Plus it gave us measurable progress!

We spent the last bit of time making tiny little rolls to fit in the gaps.
But we wanted some of the teal paint peeking through

and were just plain sick of it anyway!

Amazing right?!!!
Totally worth the time...right?!!

I really do love the frame!
Haven't thought of what to put in it yet...what could possibly merit all that time?

Maybe a wedding picture? Maybe a diamond!

It does look super cool.
And the kids were proud of their accomplishment!

It was like the marathon of crafting!

We probably should have just painted it and decorated it
like my daughter did with this frame for me for Mother's day!

So what do YOU think?????
Was it worth it!????

Would you ever try this????

Thanks for checking this out!

Please vote for us in the Maker Family and Green Design Contests...

My kids will totally appreciate it!

Check out my blog Doodlecraft for more daily fun!