Christmas is only a month away, oh no, where has the time gone?! It seems like it was not too long ago that we were spending hours getting ready and putting up the Christmas decorations in our then newly opened hotel. It is hard to believe that our second Christmas is just around the corner and it is the time for us to tackle the miles and miles of artificial garlands and boxes and boxes of ornaments to bring the Christmas mood to the hotel!

It was quite a rash then I remember as the hotel was only 2 months old and we were busy ensuring the operations were running smoothly and at the same time establishing and securing business for our new property. We stayed back after office hours for days to get the decorations done including packing biscuits from our kitchen with handmade cards for room-drops, it was very tiring but fun nonetheless and the hotel looked great when it was all done.

This year we have decided not to put up the Christmas tree in a corner of the lobby but to dress up a few big recessed ceilings that we missed out last year to make the lobby and the restaurant feel even more christmassy. We also have decided that except for the extra garlands that we have to buy, we will use whatever ornaments that we have from last year which are a lot (so it’s going to be red and gold for another year!) and will not be spending any more money on the knick-knacks to dress up the garlands than we should so in the end we settled on getting the additional ornaments by upcycling toilet paper rolls!

Materials:
gold and red spray paint
gold beads
glue sticks
wire ties
toilet paper rolls – FOC, from guestrooms

Number of ornaments made: around 80 for the time being
Total cost: less than RM35 (around £7/USD11)

Value: Priceless!

found this slightly out-of-alignment cutter that I bought at a dirt cheap price many years ago in my storeroom, was surprised that I even have it — the perfect tool for cutting the toilet paper rolls as it saves time and is easy on my wrists!

end result, let the work begin!

a few ways to make toilet paper roll flowers

snowflakes!

more snowflakes!

variations of ornaments

more variations!

first attempt on the spray paint – just a quick spray…

sprayed in gold

in red

finishing touches – added the gold beads

not bad!

tuh-duh!