Sponsored Tutorial: Tube Art

I was very excited recently when I received a variety of products to sample from Tombow. I used my first Tombow product, a Mono Permanent Adhesive Dispenser, years ago when I was into scrapbooking. Even though I don't scrapbook as much now, I still keep my Tombow Mono handy for general crafty use.

Maybe that's why I was so interested in trying the Tombow Xtreme Permanent Adhesive. It is similar to my trusty old Mono, but it's even stickier. My mind started racing for ways to create an exciting, extreme project. I finally decided to create a rather large piece of floral artwork for our living room wall.

Many thanks to the folks at Tombow for providing the adhesive I used for this project. Check out their Projects Page and the TombowUSA blog for more creative ideas!

Also many thanks to my friends and neighbors for helping me collect the other primary project material, toilet paper tubes.

Materials

• Tombow Xtreme Permanent Adhesive
• acrylic paint
• toilet paper tubes
• 1-inch wide flat paintbrush
• cutting and measuring tools
• 1 1/4 inch long wire brads
• hammer

Directions

	One thing I learned while working on this project is that not all toilet paper tubes are created equal. Some are made of a slightly thicker cardboard, which I recommend.
	Flatten the tube.
	Cut it into 3/4-inch wide rings. I used my rotary cutter and a mat, but you could also use scissors.
	Paint the tube rings. I used Delta Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint in Light Ivory for my five petaled flowers, Georgia Clay for my six petaled flowers and Stonewedge Green for the leaves. Make sure to completely cover all of the sides and edges of each ring. Then, let the paint dry completely.
	Next, the fun part where you get to stick the petals together.
	If your rings opened up while you were painting them, flatten them out again.
	Apply one swipe of adhesive parallel to and as close to a fold as possible. Apply a second swipe of adhesive slightly overlapping the first.
	Firmly press two flower petals together.
	Apply two swipes of adhesive to the second petal.
	Firmly press and attach the third petal to the second.
	Attach the rest of the petals in the same manner.
	Finally, apply two swipes of adhesive to the last petal and press it to the first.
	Now you have a five petaled flower.
	You can repeat the process to make the six petaled flowers.
	The clusters of leaves are made pretty much the same way.
	Next, attach the leaf clusters to the flowers. Again, you will want to use two, slightly overlapping swipes of adhesive in each place the leaves touch the flowers. Firmly press the pieces together. Tip: As you are joining pieces together, don't flatten or bend them. Place the leaves so they fit smoothly against the flowers without forcing them. It's sort of like a puzzle.
	Once you have made your flowers, you can join them all together, again with two slightly overlapping swipes of adhesive. I used my tile floor as a guide when I arranged my flowers and created four triangles with sides that were nearly two feet long.
	In hindsight, I think I would have made smaller sections consisting of 4-6 flowers. The two foot wide pieces that I made were a little bulky and awkward to handle as I was climbing up the ladder to hang them on the wall.
	To hang, hammer a wire brad into the wall and place a flower so that one of the lower petals rests on the brad. I used, on average, one brad for every 3-4 flowers. You want to make sure the flower cluster have enough support so the cardboard isn't pulled out of shape.

We have entertained a few guests since I installed my wall art and everyone of them has had exciting things to say about the piece.

Again, thanks to Tombow for letting me try the Xtreme Adhesive for this fun project. Happy Crafting!