The process of decorating my apartment is a slow one. I want every part of it to be special. I want to have a positive connection to the items I own, and not own too much of them. So I want to put some effort into the decoration I put up, without spending much money on it.
When I saw the family tree on All Things Paper, I knew I wanted to make something similar myself. As in the original project, I used toilet paper rolls for the leaves and cardboard for the branches, but I also used cardboard instead of photo frames. I made mine purple (because purple is awesome), with some black shadows and golden highlights. Finding the right pictures is still work-in-progress 
The tree with pictures.
Before I put pictures up.
Detail.
Time for another upcycling project!
So I have this big-ass dining table in my apartment, extendable to fit at least 6 people. I finally tested it in its extended form last week, when I had people over for the UX book club. There was only one problem: It was empty. I had no decoration for it whatsoever. Well, I have candles, but one tiny candle on a big table doesn’t really do much. So I decided, in a cloak-and-dagger operation, to dig through my paper trash and make something out of it.
I ended up using just three paper bags – the ones bread comes in. I opened them up into one flat layer, and colored them with acrylic paint: two with purple paint and white highlights, one with golden paint. Then I cut 2cm wide stripes, and wove them together. I glued all the overlaps. Voila!
Oh, and for the white part I cut three circles out of a white plastic bag, cutting around a pot with a Stanley knife. I stuck them together in the middle using double-sided tape. Then I added a simple line of golden acrylic paint.
The reverse side of the paper part looks like this:
The bread was a little oily, that’s why there are some dark spots
I didn’t document the process, so I can’t give you a step-by-step guide. But maybe you can tell by looking at the leftovers. Here you go!
