Making a rosette

There are probably easier ways to make a rosette but this is how I make them.

Apologies for the horrid papers used but daughters bf is staying with us for a few weeks until his new flat is ready and as a consequence I'm having to share my playroom and all of my decent stash hidden away. (Took me over 8 hours to tidy it up yesterday, oops) Like most of the cardweight capable punches my SU border punches don't like thin nasty paper and I would have had a better result if I'd used something thicker than cheap loo paper ;o)

Punch the entire length of 12*12 or a4 card stock and trim to the required width to create a band. In this case I used the SU lacey border and cut the black to 3" wide and the pink & white ( the photo shows the white back) to 2". Using a score board score evenly all the way across at about 1cm apart, for mine I scored at the beginning & middle of the pattern. It's worth pointing out that the entire rosette will be more than twice as large as the width you've chosen and the wider the band the more card you'll need. A 1" wide strip will only require 1 length of 12*12 whereas mine took 2 lengths of 12*12 for each layer.

Once scored fold to create concertinas taking care to fold in the same places of patterns for all the pieces.

Punch or nestie a circle of card, doesnt matter what card you use as it's going to be covered. I used a 1 3/8" SU punch which I then folded in half and marked across the centre with a pencil. If you are making a small rosette you don't need to mark the centre, this is just to help so that I get an even splay of folds. Use a very strong and quick drying glue over the edges of one half. I've gone overboard with my trusty tombow glue, not because I need to but so you can see the glue on the photo.

Start with one of the concertinas and tease into place around half of the circle. This is the time you'll wish you had a dozen fingers on each hand ;o) Hold it firmly in place until the glue dries, it should only be a minute or so if you've used a good strong glue and didnt apply too much. Mine took about 3 minutes! If you're making a small rosette and only need one strip you just need to bend the end to meet the start.

Repeat the glue on the bottom half and add the 2nd concertina, hold in place until dry again. If when you let go it starts to rise in the middle don't panic, this is quite normal and will be sorted out in a while.

If adding a second layer of folds lightly apply some glue to the top of the folds on the base layer. Don't go up to the centre or the edges, a band around the middle is sufficient. Gently ease the folds into place and push down. It can be a bit fiddly if you try to get the centre edges lined up so if need be trim away the centre edge a bit before putting into place. It doesnt matter if the top layers arent the same width because we're going to cover it. Once finished if necessary glue the ends together to neaten.

This is me teasing the folds into place, for once I've managed to hide how ink stained my fat lil puds are lol.

If you want to add a ribbon dangler glue it into place now.

Next step is to cover the centre, I'm looking for a more traditional rosette look so I've used the 2nd largest large circle nestie (black) and the next size down (pink) which has been embossed with a bug folder but any size would have worked provided it was large enough to cover the edge where the 2 layers of rosette meet. Add a strong glue to the back and position on the rosette and press down quite firmly.






As you can see from the pic it's still trying to lift up in the middle. You can hold it down for a while if you want, I prefer to just plonk one of my heavier punches on top and clear off to make a cuppa lol. By the time the tea is made and drunk the rosette will be perfectly flat and ready to decorate or use as an embellie.














Not sure what I'm going to do with this whopper as it measures nearly 6" across but the lil one I made (on the first picture and made from a single inch strip) will no doubt end up on a card at some point.

Happy Birthday Alex

It's my sons girlfriends birthday tomorrow and she loves bathtime and lots of bling so I made this whopper for her using stamps from the Flippin Women series. Made from 2 sheets of acetate it's 8 1/2" by 6 3/4". Going to have to make a box later as it's such an unusual size.

Pale lilac card, dcwv glitter card, prima flowers, MS punch around the page, SU bird punch (branch), crystal stickles & gems

promarker, ivory & blush

copic, r27, rv000, rv21, rv23, rv34, v12 v15, v09, b00, yr23, yr31g02, g05, c1

The greeting is a 3" sqre piece of whisper white and punched around with the greetings stamped with elegant eggplant, rich razzleberry & melon mambo.

Another 3d rose easel card

For those who don't know me in real life tomorrow is one of those mile stone events I never thought I'd see.

My niece was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at age 5 then again at 11. Thanks to the Anthony Nolan trust a bone marrow donor was found just in the nick of time and although she didnt have an easy time with the transplant tomorrow she's going to be 21. NB, for all the ladies at an old egroup called papercrafts, she still has all the cards and mementoes you all kindly sent her. Thanks once again for keeping her spirits up.

Like my last easel card I've used a MS punch around the page set and have made a super sized easel card. The roses were cut with scal before having some stickles applied to the edge of a few petals and a Leone Em branch with leaves punch. I've used a Clarity flourish stamp to add a border to the base and behind the central panel. I mistakenly used a pearlised card which doesnt like ink so the elegant eggplant ink isnt a true dark purple any more but I liked the effect so I didnt start again as I often do lol. Underneath the ribbon I've added a key and padlock charm, these were made with a spellbinders die on clear shrink plastic which had been inked over with some silver alchie ink and stamped with the same clarity flourish in elegant eggplant. The detail doesnt show on the pic but I'm really pleased with them. Finally the sentiment was stamped before being punched with 2 SU oval punches then 3d'd to give a lip for the easel to sit on. I might have a go later at cutting a 21 charm on some shrink plastic with the cricut but then again I might not lol. If I do I'll let you all know how the cricut liked it.

Card box

I'm having fun making boxes at the mo. This is one made to fit 5 5" sqr cards.

I've used co'rdinations white card to make the box (not great card as it's quite thin) with SU snowflakes stamped in brocade blue (I'm seriously gutted that this colour will no longer be available after Sep 30th) with matching card stock punched with a MS around the page punch set before having a snowflake stamped and embossed with white SU EP.

The lid has some brocade blue ribbon threaded through a white cardstock buckle cut on my cricut with scal before being stickied with a zig 2 way glue pen then dipped into a pot of dazzling diamonds. A few sticky gems have been added.


Here's a very basic guide to making the box. It's suprisingly quick and easy to make and can be made from 1 sheet of 12*12 card. I'm assuming everyone knows how to make a box so I'm not going to waffle, just show the scores and where to stick.

This is the size and scoring lines for the lid. If you're using a decent weight cardstock I'd add an extra 1/8th inch to allow extra room for the base to fit. Because of the irregular size it's easiest to score at 1.5" on a hougie/ms board or normal trimmer with scoring blade before rotating 90 degrees, score again at 1.5" and repeat until the 4 sides are scored otherwise you'd have to score at odd measurements and not all boards are capable of scoring at 2 5/8ths.

Under normal circumstances I'd use my fabby tombow glue to stick the sides together but rather than showing a dozen boring pics showing each flap being glued I've just used some dst and photoed it in place.

For the box it's far easier to decorate before assembling. Don't forget the lid is going to hide the top 1.5" so make allowances while placing any central panels. When assembling tuck the small inner panel in first.














I've added a black & white jpg for the buckle, SCAL users please feel free to copy and use scal to auto trace.








If you're a novice at making boxes or my loose instructions don't make sense please feel free to email me. Please note the folding template is not to scale.