Making Paper Rosettes for Decorating

 

How To Make Paper Rosettes

Paper rosettes are a particular love of mine. I like to make garlands and swags of them for each holiday, and I also use them in place of bows on gifts. I even like to sew seed beads onto them. 

 

 

 

Making paper rosettes is easy, especially if you use a diecut machine and one of the gorgeous European dies. But those dies and machines are expensive. There's another way to make them using a "Score Buddy" or other scoring board (I use Martha Stewart's). You can also carefully fold a strip of paper yourself, like a fan, and use it to make a rosette.

 

You will need: Paper to score and fold, hot glue or fast-grab glue, and cardstock circles (plain or scalloped). You can also use things like cardboard "milk bottle" caps, if you like. In fact, that would be very cute.

Don't doubt yourself - you can do it!

 Use a scoring board and score every 1/4 inch on a strip of paper you've cut about 1.25" tall (max) and 8 to 8.5" long. Use cheapie wavy-edge scissors or somesuch and cut along one long side for a "fancy" side. To fold the strip of paper by hand, and rub your thumbnail along each fold to crease it strongly. Unfold gently and use the wavy-edge scissors along one long edge. Or, to avoid any of this folding, scroll down to the very bottom of the post and find out about the "Cheater's Rosettes!"

IMPORTANT:

When making a rosette, you may find you need to SNIP OFF one pleat - just one - not a whole section, just one pleat, before you begin. This lets the ends of the rosette "nest" together when you glue them. You'll be able to tell if a pleat needs to be snipped off or not when you go to glue the ends of the strip together.

Now you're ready to PLEAT, or accordion-fold, the rosette. Just like a fan, bend one section in, the other section out, all the way down the length of the paper, along the scored lines, or if you have no ScoreBuddy, as evenly as you can.

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NOW...

Plug in the glue gun or the glue pot.

Put a piece of waxed paper down to work on. If you have no waxed paper, you can use tinfoil in a pinch but it isn't as good.

Once the rosette is firmly pleated, let it expand and GLUE the ends together by tucking the last section under the first. It will be really hard to see how this rosette is joined, once it's finished! Very nice! Use super-grab glue, or a tiny bit of hot glue  - I LIKE THE HOT GLUE BEST BUT I ALWAYS BURN MY FINGERS SO WATCH OUT.

When just beginning, I would suggest glueing with super-grab glue and LATER going back and reinforce its hold with a thin line of hot glue on the back of the rosette.

Gather the rosette together. It will look like a bottomless cupcake holder!

Now, press down with a finger on the middle while kind of holding it up. See the photo, words can't suffice!

You can choose whether to push it so the FANCY edge is out, or the PLAIN edge! In the picture above, I have the fancy edge out.

Get one of the cardstock scalloped circles ready. Make sure you are working on the BACK SIDE of your rosette. You may have to flip it over, like a pancake. Of course, it will take this opportunity to try to unsquish itself. Just push it back down.

Put a dollop of hot glue on the back at the center of the gathers, don't force it down into the hollow, and spread it around maybe nickel-sized, and pop the cardboard scallop over it, making sure it's centered. HOLD IT till the glue sets SOMEWHAT, not all the way. But DON'T BURN your fingers like I do - use a pair of pliers or scissors or something to hold the scallop down. 

SUPER TECHNIQUE you won't see elsewhere: Don't let the glue grab all the way or your rosette won't sit right. It needs to be flipped and pushed down so that it hardens and is flat on the backside.

So flip the rosette over, very carefully. It might try to unfurl on you and pop off the scallop - just push it back down into the hot glue. Don't panic! Now you have the RIGHT SIDE UP.

Now squeeze into the center of the RIGHT side of the rosette a dab of glue, less than you used on the backside. Just have a drop sticking up over the hollow. Place the cardstock scallop you want to use on top, centering it. As before, push down gently until the glue grabs it. You want the rosette to sit firmly on its backside.

This picture below is just showing me reinforcing the "join" with a line of hot glue.

THIS ISN'T NECESSARY IF IT WAS ORIGINALLY JOINED WITH HOT GLUE.

Now comes the fun part!

You can add a smaller circle atop the stabilizing cardstock circle. It can be cardstock or paper.You can add "gems" or doodads now, too!

Below photo is talking about a kit I used to sell, so you can see how sweet the rosettes look when in a bunch.

CHEATER'S ROSETTES

Some Hate These Cupcake Rosettes, Some Love These.

You can make them yourself, too. Go get some pretty colors or designs of cupcake holders, the paper or even the metallic kind.

Carefully cut the bottom off, and make sure you don't have any bits of bottom left. You want to remove the bottom completely and have the pleated part only. The pleats are not sharp and the paper tends to be soft, but the end result is still pretty.

You'll have to SHORTEN the liner. Cut along a pleat -- now you have a long strip. Cut off at least an inch, I always cut more. Glue the edges together, just like before. Push it down, secure it, etc, flip it, etc. 

They tend to be more "primitive" than the fancier rosettes, but they are fun to make and fun to let young teens and pre-teens help with. And coupled with your fancier, larger rosettes, they look great as a swag or decorating a tree as ornaments. I like to decorate with a combo of my "best" rosettes and the "cheater" ones.

 

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Hollyhock and Her Merry Needle