Paper straws
Many hypermarkets offer customers free catalogs of promotional items.
Magazines or individual pages with information about discounts are full of colorful photographs. They are only relevant for a week or two, then they become useless. The paper in such publications is thin and easily curled.
For crafts, straws of different lengths and thicknesses can be useful. Therefore, you need to twist the tubes according to the format of the future craft.
The longest straw (44-45 cm) is obtained when using a full magazine spread, i.e. two pages at once. If you do not twist it very tightly, the tube will be thicker and softer. From one whole page of the magazine you get a straw 33-32 cm long. A short one (21-22 cm) can be made by cutting such a page crosswise into two parts. The shorter the straw, the easier it is to twist.
Rolling paper straws without knitting needles and pencils
To make paper tubes, you can use thick and thin knitting needles, pens, pencils, smooth sticks, winding multi-colored sheets of paper on them. This is how the straws turn out to be hollow inside. But the length of a pencil or knitting needle may not be enough, and they will get lost inside the rolled up roll. You can make a paper straw without the help of additional items. You need to start working from the corner so that the paper does not wrinkle, but goes in a straight line. Having slightly wetted your fingers, you need to grab the corner of the page and, holding it in your hands, roll it evenly and carefully. You need to move diagonally, heading towards the opposite corner.
Sometimes you come across magazines with polished paper. The drawings on them are more colorful and beautiful. But such sheets can be more difficult to roll because they slip. If the paper becomes stubborn and curls poorly, it needs to be moistened. There is no need to wet it too much because it may tear. Simply wipe the sheet with a damp sponge or spray it with water from a spray bottle. When the structure of paper is slightly disturbed, it is easier to transform.
The tube does not always turn out tight right away. To tighten the twist and make the stick thinner, just roll it on the table. The finished straw should be covered with your palm and, with force, pressing it to the surface, roll several times in one direction. You can also twist the tube in your hands. When it becomes thin enough, the corner needs to be fixed so that the tube does not unfold. It is more convenient to do this with a small bottle of PVA glue with a sharp spout. You should not skimp, it is better to squeeze out a little more and fold the remaining corner.The glue dries almost immediately and leaves no traces, so excess glue will not be visible on the paper.
You can make various crafts from these colorful straws. By shortening them, bending them or cutting them into small pieces, you can design and create different gift cards. These are the kind of children's masterpieces that can be made from paper tubes.
Straws look beautiful when collected in a bouquet in a vase and complemented with other decorative elements.
