Beautiful Recycled Cardboard Wall Decorations

If your walls could do with a bit of a makeover and your recycling bin is over flowing, these beautiful wall decorations will solve both problems, and you’ll have great fun in the process. 

Here are some fabulous, versatile, and – above all – easy cardboard crafts for adults and kids that will turn those old tissue boxes and toilet roll cores into beautiful wall features for your home.

These art and craft ideas with cardboard make for a great family activity, but while the kids will love taking charge of the painting and sticking, we recommend adults do the fiddlier cutting jobs. 

3D wall art cardboard craft | Flower garland cardboard tube crafts

3D wall art cardboard craft

The first of our cardboard art ideas is a playful geometric wall decoration. Simply use the template to construct lots of pyramid shapes from empty Cushelle tissue boxes, paint in colours of your choice, and then stick together side by side. Make it as big or small as you like, and let your imagination run wild. Cardboard crafts for adults (and kids) don’t come much more professional-looking than this! 

Takes about 3 hours

1. Carefully cut open the empty tissue boxes and flatten. Draw around the pyramid template and cut out. Then score along the dotted lines, fold, and assemble, applying glue to the tabs to stick them in place. Repeat to make 9 more pyramids.
2. Paint the sides of the pyramids in a pastel paint shade of your choice, then leave to dry. Using a different colour for each side can create some pretty cool effects, so don’t be afraid to experiment!
3. Take the large sheet of card and arrange your painted pyramids in a pattern. When you are happy with the design, glue each in place, side by side. Allow to dry.
4. Carefully cut around the outside of the pyramids with a craft knife to reveal the final shape. Now it is ready to place on the wall – we recommend using velcro picture hanging strips or similar.

Flower garland cardboard tube crafts

Have you ever looked at a toilet roll tube and thought – ‘that would make a really pretty flower’? No? Then you’ll be surprised to discover that you can transform your empty Cushelle toilet roll tubes into a beautiful flower garland wall art by following these simple cardboard tube craft steps. Here’s how you can make this art and crafts idea with cardboard a reality. 

Takes about 2 hours

1. Ask the kids to flatten the toilet roll tubes and help them measure out sections 1 cm wide, before cutting them out.
2. Put the kids in charge of painting the inside and outside of the soon-to-be petals with pretty pastel colours of their choice. Ask the kids to wipe up any paint spillages with some moistened kitchen paper while you wait for the petals to dry.
3. Take five petals and arrange them into a flower shape. Stick the petals side by side with glue, and allow to dry. Repeat these steps until you have your desired number of flowers (or until you have used all the empty toilet roll tubes!).
4. Arrange the flowers in any way you like, before gluing them side by side, and leaving them to dry. Once they’re dry, stick them to the wall using blue tack (but make sure you test it on a small, hidden area of the wall first to ensure it won’t mark the paint or wallpaper!).

We hope you and any little helpers have great fun creating these cardboard arts and crafts projects. If your walls start to look a bit bare, you can always recruit your young assistants to gather materials – and teach them how to recycle as you go.