One Earth Day doesn’t cut it for us here at your favorite neighborhood used media store. We devoted a whole month to celebrating our planet (and all year striving to practice what we preach) with free in-store events and environmentally minded displays. Naturally, we reduce, reuse and recycle to honor this lovely blue marble we call home. We also hope to create conversations about climate change and our environmental impact. But we’re still Bookmans and want to have fun too. We regularly host cool crafts using materials that anyone can find in their own home. Today we show you how to make one such craft — Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses. With just a few items and a ton of toilet paper rolls, you can make a gorgeous bouquet to decorate your home. They may not smell the same, but after reading The Hunger Games who can really stomach the smell of roses anyway?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

Supplies
* Toilet paper roles. You need about six roles per flower. This may take a while to collect but is worth it.
* Scrap paper and pencil.
* Scissors.
* Hot glue sticks and a glue gun. If you don’t have one already, you can buy one at any craft store. This Bookmans blog contributor recommends the Martha Stewart brand. I recommend everything Martha Stewart. Seriously the glitter is AMAZING.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

Step 1
Gather your toilet paper rolls. Using the scissors, cut each roll lengthwise and then flatten. PRO TIP: Roll the cut rolls inside out. This will help flatten it out for you.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

Step 2
On a scrap piece of paper draw a flower with six petals as shown in the picture. This takes some time and you will most likely need to adjust the petals as you go. When you are satisfied with the shape, cut it out. This is your stencil and will help when creating your rose.

Step 3
Using the stencil, trace the shape on all six of your flattened rolls. Then cut out the shapes.

Step 4
On each of the rose shapes, cut out petals increasing cut petal count by one (i.e., On one shape cut out a single petal. One the next, cut out two. On the third cut out three and so on). Once complete, you have six shapes: one with six petals, one with five, one with four, one with three, one with two and one. These are the layers of your rose.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

Step 5
Curl the ends of the petals inward and outward. It sounds weird, but maybe the photos will help.

Step 6
In this step glue together the two ends of each petal in more or less the shape of a cone. On the petal with no ends, cut two lines in between the petals on opposite sides. This helps you fold the petal into the cone shape you need. Roll the single petal into a cylinder.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

Step 7
Using your hot glue gun, glue the layers together starting with the largest and ending with the smallest single petal. The gluing pattern is 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

PRO TIP: I used the scraps from cutting my first rose petal shapes to create a second rose. This way no resource is wasted.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycled Roses

This craft is can be time-consuming but don’t get too caught up in making it perfect. The imperfections won’t be noticeable and your roses will be awesomely unique. The options for these roses are endless. Paint them in delicate pastels with metallic tips and drop into a glass bowl for decoration. Glue them to a photo frame and paint the whole thing one solid color. Scatter them across a table for an elegant centerpiece. When you tire of your roses, put them in your blue bin.

What crafts have you tried using recycled materials? Tell us in the comments below. This tutorial came from our crafters at Bookmans Flagstaff.

Happy crafting!