Sunday, May 26, 2013

Wrapping Paper Rosettes

I was wrapping a wedding gift the other day when I suddenly realized I didn't have any kind of decoration to add to it.  I could take it without, of course and pretend it had fallen off in the car, but when in a pinch - create!


I had strips of wrapping paper left over so I decided to make a rosette.  They are so easy.  All you have to do is accordion fold a strip of paper.  Depending on the length of your strips, you may need to glue 2 together to make it nice and full.  The depth of your rosette will depend on the width of your accordion folds.  For example, if you wanted a rosette about 1/2" deep, then make your folds about 1/2".  There's really no right or wrong way.  What it's to be, is up to me...... right......  Your finished rosette will be about twice the width of your paper strip.  My strip of paper was 2" wide, so the rosette ended up being 4" across, but you can make these any size. 

Once you've accordion folded the strip, overlap then glue the ends together.  So far so good. 


The hardest part is squishing it together to meet in the center without the center popping up.  If you want to glue something over the center, popping up is not an option.  So here's a tip I came up with a couple of years ago when designing a rosette project for Scrapbook Soup.  All you need is a set of plain,  round cookie cutters, or even the metal ring from a mason jar.  It all depends on the size of your finished rosette.  This one is 4" across, so I needed a 4" round cookie cutter.  Place the rosette in the cookie cutter, then gently push the center down so it lays flat.  How cool is that...   Glue any additional embellishments to the center then glue to your package, or whatever.  Don't forget to remove the cookie cutter!  I added silk flower circles and a button to the center of mine, then an adhesive jewel to the center of the button for a little wedding bling!


The step outs are from a project I shared last year.  In this project, the smaller rosette was pushed onto the folds of the larger one then I glue them to a dowel, which, in turn is glue into the top of a decorated wooden spool.  I made these with my grandchildren for our July 4th get-together.


Enjoy!  Y'all come back now...........

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Designer Crafts Connection - Dreams and Wishes

The DCC theme for May is Dreams and Wishes.  There's a little rhyme that keeps popping in my head:  "I wish I may, I wish I might, wish upon a star tonight".  Did I get that right..  It's always fun to make a wish, even if you know it might never come true.

It's my birthday today, so we had a traditional birthday cake (Bavarian Forest) with its traditional candle - the number "8" because it looks like the sign for infinity (but mainly because hubby forgot to get some new ones).  Each year when I blow out the candle I always wish to be around for my next birthday.  I've been pretty lucky so far, but I know that one of these years my luck will run out - hopefully not any time soon.

A couple of years ago my granddaughter "wished" to go to Disney World to see her favourite princesses and Tinkerbell.  Who could resist that, so off we went.  I took tons of photos of course and created this plaque for her room.  Some time later, I had an opportunity to create some projects for Michaels.com and this is one that is currently being featured.  Everything I used was purchased at my local store and you can find the instructions here: http://www.michaels.com/Wish-Upon-A-Star/29074,default,pd.html?cgid=projects-generalcrafts-woodcrafting&start=20
 

It was really quite simple.  I covered the inside of the plaque with scrapbook paper, painted the edge and a small wood star yellow and the letters white then added glitter before gluing them in place.  

The plaque now hangs in her room, witness to the fact the wishes do sometimes come true.  May all your wishes come true too.  Use the "hop forward" on the DCC logo in my sidebar to see what other designers came up with.  Enjoy! Y'all come back now.........

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!