Being thrifty is nifty!

 Hi, there!  My name is Jill.  Some things you need to know about me:

1. In college I was given the nickname of Jill the Thrill from Stephenville which was usually   shortened to Jill the Thrill or just Thrill...And although I don't get called that too often anymore, I decided to call my blog Thrill's Thrifty Finds because, well, naming a blog is hard!

2.  I live in Fort Worth with my husband, Adam (sometimes referred to as the Hubster) and our dog, Daisy.

3.  I enjoy being thrifty.  And crafty.  In a word, I'm crifty... thrafty...?

I'll keep working on that one.  I enjoy being frugal (nicest word for cheap I can think of) and finding the BEST possible deals on things while still enjoying life and understanding that sometimes you need to splurge!  I love to craft but crafting takes money, honey! So, I try to craft as cheaply as possible.  I also dress, decorate my home, and live as cheaply as possible.  Adam really appreciates this.

While I enjoy a good thrift store or flea market, my main mode of cheaping out is garage sales.  I like to think they cut out the middle man so you really get the best deal.  I have heard so many people say they can never find anything good at garage sales.  I can see where they are coming from.  Garage sales can be tricky.  There are many times I can go an entire day and not find anything. And then the next Saturday I score at every sale.  I am not the type of garage saler (made up word alert) that gets up at seven and hits them when they all open.  Though from having my own sales I know this is when some great stuff gets bought.  I tend to get out and go around 10 or 11.  I have had some of my best luck at the end of the day when people are just ready to be done and are faced with selling their stuff for cheap or hauling it all back in their house and finding a place to store it all.  I can't tell you the number of times someone has basically given me something just to take it off their hands.

What I would ultimately like for this blog to be about is trying new crafts, cheap decor ideas and ways to be thrifty.  So, without further ado I wanna jump right into a recent craft I tried.  It involves toilet paper rolls!

Before you think I am crazy I want you to look at some of the ideas out there! I have seen so many great project ideas on different blogs and on Pinterest.

You can check out this cool wreath by Heidi at Mom's Crafty Space! Or this fall garland made from wee t.p. pumpkins, and finally, I really like this wall art from All Things Paper.

Now that you have an idea of what one can create from a toilet paper roll (and hopefully no longer think I am nutso), I wanted to share my idea for an initial made out of toilet paper rolls. My husband and I were married last year and I have really been enjoying projects that include my new-ish last name. On a later blog post I will talk about the SMITH wall hanging which I re-purposed from a sign I got at a garage sale for a dollar.

OK- So my mission is to make the letter S out of toilet paper rolls. I really liked the flower designs I have seen on some of the toilet paper roll wreaths on other blogs and decided to use that design to construct my letter! Although I am doing an S, I think any letter would be doable. ** You may find, as I did, that you will need to use some strategery (technical term alert) when hanging your letter-- I used thumbtacks to hang my S and shape it the way I wanted- but more on that later.

Materials Needed:
Several empty t.p. or paper towel rolls (I think my projects needed 12 or 13 t.p. rolls)
Scissors
Aleen's Tacky Glue- Hot glue would work too, but me and hot glue don't exactly get along.
Paint color of your choice (I used American Acrylic Paint in Bluegrass Green- purchased at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon) ** I was originally going to spray paint, but I decided to use acrylic paint instead. Spray paint may work better and would DEFINITELY be faster!
Small paint brush
Extra doo dads for embellishment-- (Optional based on preference) I bought some pearl stick-on Gemstones by the PaperStudio from Hobby Lobby when they were half off!!
Clothespins to help hold the pieces together while the glue dries. (You could make due without these, but they helped!)

The total for this craft for me was about 3 dollars since I had most of the things on hand. I spent about 2 dollars for the embellishments and 80 cents for paint.

Gather your materials.

Smash the rolls so that they lay flat. Well, flat-ish.

**While smashing, I like to say things like, "Hulk Smash" and pretend to have super human strength like The Incredible Hulk... But this is totally optional.

Cut your rolls to the desired thickness- I cut the t.p. rolls 5 times. I didn't measure to make sure they were all uniform, because that's not how this lazy crafter rolls (no pun intended). But, you are more than welcome to do so!

**Your hand may hurt after a while, I know mine did. I took a break and took out The Daisela (blog mascot). And maybe I ate some Cheez-Its (official unofficial sponsor of Thrill's Thrifty Finds).

Once you have all of your rolls cut, get your tacky glue and glue the pieces together like they are flowers- I did five "petals" to make one flower.

See all the pretty little flowers?

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Use the clothespins to clip the pieces together while drying when needed. The good thing about the Tacky Glue is that it holds the pieces together without much help! I like to pin them just to be on the safe side. Once your flowers are glued, start gluing them to each other in the design you want. Play with the pieces first to see which arrangement works best.

Playing with the design...

Once it is all dry, start painting!

I asked the Hubster to take a picture of me painting so you could have an action shot. Pay no attention to the mess in the other room. P.S.- Check out my Clifton Cubs Sweatshirt!!

Just keep painting. Just keep painting. Just keep painting, painting, painting. If you do it my way (with acrylic paint) getting all the nooks and crannies can take some time. I only did one coat and left some spots for the natural color to show through. You know, to give it a distressed look. OK, fine! I didn't feel like doing another coat. It was by coincidence that it ended up giving a distressed look to the completed project. After the paint was dry, I stuck on the pearl embellishments in the center of each flower.

So here is the finished product!

Really this craft could be called "T.P flower garland" since the S ended up being just several flowers glued together. But with the help of some well placed tacks I was able to hang it above our bed. You can sort of see the pearl embellishments in the picture. You see them better in person. Initially, I didn't use glue to adhere the pearls since they were self-adhesive, but after waking up with one stuck to my head (that had fallen off) I decided maybe glue is a good idea. So I took it down and used a paint brush to add a little glue to each pearl. 

 

 

 

So there you have it, folks.  Toilet paper roll wall decor.  I have seen where this is a good craft to do with kids (after you cut the rolls) since they can make their own design and it costs next to nothing!  I bet you will never look at a toilet paper roll the same way again.  Come back tomorrow because I plan to post a valentine craft that I got from Martha Stewart herself! Stay crafty, my friends!