How to Make Paper Rosettes

Paper rosettes have become a very popular trend in scrapbooking and paper crafting. You can find paper rosettes as beautiful embellishments on cards and scrapbook pages. They make beautiful toppers for decorative jars and tins. If you are one who likes to give away gifts in a jar, like a cookie mix in a mason jar or homemade jam, these would be perfect to decorate the lid or the outside of the jars with. Paper rosettes would also make beautiful accents on wrapped gifts and gift tags.

Make Rosettes From Rectangles:

First cut a strip of patterned paper or cardstock into a rectangle that is 12 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide. (You will also need a 1" circle cut from patterned paper or cardstock.) Score the strip of paper ever ½ inch and fold the scored lines. (You could also just accordion fold them with your hands instead of scoring them, which would be faster, but you may not have perfect folds. You really can't tell either way in the end.)

Using your tape runner, put adhesive on one end of the strip of paper that has been folded. Bring both ends together and adhere together. Gather the top of the paper together and gently push down so that the bottom spreads out to form the rosette. Place a dab of glue in the middle of the circle on top if you would like to add the circle so that it is a visible embellishment or put the glue on the bottom and attach the circle on the bottom of the rosette so that it is not shown.

Make Rosettes From Squares:

Cut four squares that are 4 inches by 4 inches from patterned paper or cardstock. Score each square every ½ inch and fold the scored lines. This will make an accordion fold. Then fold each of the four accordions folded squares in half.

Run your adhesive tape runner down the inside of one side of the folded papers and close up the fold. This will make a little fan. Do this for the remaining 3 folded papers. You should now have four accordion folded papers that resemble little fans. With your tape runner, put adhesive down the left side of each of the fans. Then join the four parts together, the left side of one adhered to the right side of the other until you have joined them into a circle. You have made a rosette!

(You could also use this technique with two or three squares instead of four.)