Rosette Love

Here at the Beaverton PZ, we are absolutely smitten with paper rosettes. As you may remember, we posted an entry about them back in February, but we just can't get enough. We love them! And judging by the consistent positive responses from our customers, we are not alone.

To make one 11" wide rosette you will need:

-3 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" text weight paper
-double stick tape or tacky glue
-ribbon or fishing line
-various edge and hole punches such as Martha Stewart & Fiskars
-sharp scissors

You can make these festive decorations in almost any size, but we will show you step by step how to make an 11" wide rosette.

Step 1) Glue or tape the 11" end of the sheets together to make one long strip. At this point you could edge punch the two long sides for a lacy effect (as shown below) or leave the edge plain.

Step 2) Pleat widthwise every 3/4", or where the punch intervals fall, accordion style.

TIP: For more variety, at this point you could also punch holes through the pleated layers or snip snowflake style with scissors for an even more lacy effect. If the stack is too thick, just punch through a few pleats at a time. Try combining punching and snipping techniques for interesting results!

Step 3) Fold the pleated bundle in half to create a crease at the center. This is the midpoint at which the rosette will fan out. With a short length of ribbon or fishing line tie a tight knot around the bundle at the crease.

Step 4) Apply double sided tape or tacky glue to both sides of the folded stack.

Step 5) Fan opposite ends out to meet each other and tape or glue securely together.


To hang them up, punch a small hole on opposite sides of the rosette close to the outer edge and use ribbon or fishing line to suspend several together in a row as in the first picture above.

Have fun experimenting with different punching techniques, pleat widths, and paper sizes to create an interesting variety like we did below! --Beaverton PZ