A lot of technology is not built with sustainability in mind, the till at my work place decided that it is "empty" and can no longer print when there are stills several metres of paper left inside it. So instead of just throwing it in the bin I took it, and I have decided to make art with it!

Originally I posted a poll on my instagram story and got some great suggestions (which I will probably use in the future) but decided I wanted my first project to be creating a till roll flower crown, an eco flower crown if you will.

So, let's get into it. This blog post is an outline of what I did, I recommend watching the video for the full experience.


Yep this is the size of the roll that the printer spits out when its "empty" we have started being able to use them for the delivery printer but at the time I took it, it was just going to end up in the bin (not on my watch).

Materials Used:
  • Receipt Paper
  • Glue Gun
  • PVA (or similar) Glue
  • Plyers
  • Thick, malleable wire (no Idea where I got it from)
  • Small Bead wires
  • Paint, paint brushes, scissors
  • Recycled Twine, salvaged from Christmas Presents


First things first, I cut and panted on all of the flowers, it was cold and wet so I was aiming for a tropical kind of vibe. Also painting on receipt paper with watercolours is weird, mainly because it's slightly water resistant. 
Hard to get what I aimed for but I quite like the fuzzy colour I ended up with. Had to make sure i painted both sides of the flowers, and I made some extras in the end.
Next up, bead wire and glue gun! This was the fiddly (and most painful bit). I made little backs for the wire to hold it in place, and added glue and stick it onto the back of my flowers.
Note to future me: do not touch hot glue. Seems obvious, but when Things slipped I instinctively went to salvage it with my fingers, very bad idea. ended in burns. Be careful with hot glue!

Next up was adding the twine, fiddly business but it went quite well. I got this idea from a flower crown I saw online and it looked so pretty! I just wound it round from one end to the other and voila. It also helps keep everything together and stopps things sliding round where I havend added the bead wire tight enough.

After that I used some salvaged pva Glue (stuff that had dried up and was going a bit out of date) to stick some of the fiddly bits together and waited for it to dry!

And we're done! This blog post made it seem a lot simpler than it was, it was very fiddly and there was quite a bit of waiting around. It came out as more of a decorative piece than anything to be honest, won't be wearing that outside, plus it looks like a kid's art project. But I had a lot of fun making it, and managed to make it by suing mostly old and recycled materials so that's a win in my book.

I still have loads of till roll left so let me know what I should make with it next!

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