How To Make Paper Rosettes for a Beautiful Patriotic Centerpiece

You have probably seen paper rosettes before. Apparently, they are also referred to as pinwheels, fan decorations, paper fans, and paper lollies. Whatever you call them, they are the perfect addition to the patriotic vintage fireworks centerpiece!

Supplies Needed For Paper Rosettes

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12-inch x 12-inch Vintage Americana Cardstock
Paper cutter
X-Acto knife
Straight edge
Cutting Mat
Tacky Glue
Low Melt Glue Gun
3/16″ diameter Wooden Skewers

To make these, the vintage Americana cardstock is perfect. You’ll notice it’s the same paper used for the fireworks, too. Everything coordinates but there is a total of 20 designs so it is not monotonous. I like using an X-Acto knife on the ends but you could use the paper cutter, too.

The low-melt glue gun can be used for everything, but I like having a little more time to adjust things. The Tacky Glue sets up quickly but not as quickly as glue from the glue gun. The other issue with the glue gun is that it doesn’t lay as flat as the Tacky Glue.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”PMBoZ” via=”no” ]You have probably seen paper rosettes before. They are the perfect addition to a patriotic vintage fireworks centerpiece! Gorgeous![/ctt]

Cut The Strips For The Paper Rosettes

Cut 2" strip of paper cardstoack — Cut strips of paper cardstock.

Wanting to make these rosettes proportional to the vintage fireworks, I cut 2-inch and 2-1/4-inch strips to make rosettes that are 4 and 4-1/2 inches in diameter. For each rosette, you will need a total of three 12″ strips. You can make these all the same pattern or each strip a different pattern.

Make 1/2-Inch Folds

This mat has 1/2″ squares marked on it, which makes it easy to start the 1/2″ folds. Just lay the paper strip on one of the inch lines. Then, lay your ruler on the line which marks 1/2″ from the end. (This little 6-inch metal ruler is handy for small projects!) Fold the paper against the edge of the ruler to make a crease.

Line up the edges of the paper when folding.

Then, remove the ruler and press the crease down. Fold the creased paper again, lining up the edges. Run your finger over the crease to make it sharp. Pay close attention to keeping the paper edges straight! Otherwise, the fanned part will begin going kittywampus! One side will be shorter than the other.

When you get to the end, there may be a little excess. It’s not a big deal. Cut off the little piece with your X-Acto knife and ruler. You want the edge of the paper end to lay right along the fold. It will be less noticeable.

Repeat with the other two strips. Once you have all three accordion-pleated, you can begin to glue them together.

Gluing The Paper Strips Together

The first thing you need to do is decide which pattern you want to have on top of the other. I wanted the stars and stripes to show more than the blue star pattern. So, run a line of glue near the edge of the underside of the pattern you want on top.

Then, run a line of glue along the edge on top of the pattern to be covered, as shown in the first picture.

Next, lay the edge of the glue-lined strip, pattern side up, into the crease of the other strip. Keep the edges and the edge along the crease straight. Then, smooth the papers together with your fingers. Make sure to wipe off any excess glue and that you haven’t glued the pleats together.

Repeat to glue the third strip to the other two. Once you have the three strips glued together, glue both ends together. You should have a circular pleated form as in the third picture.

Lay the circular shape flat and push the outer edges to the center.

Lay the pleated form flat on the cutting mat and gently push the outside edges toward the center. You should have a very small hole in the middle.

Bead of low melt glue into center. Flatten bead with your finger. — Apply a bead of low-melt glue into the center. Flatten the glue bead with your finger.

Squeeze a bead of low-melt glue in the center. Before it sets, flatten the bead with your finger. (This is why you want the low-melt glue gun!) You don’t want a raised bead of glue. Anything you glue over it won’t lay flat. Continue to hold the rosette until the glue is set.

Flip the rosette over, and if necessary, press it down flat, and apply a bead of low-melt glue. Don’t forget to take off the excess with your finger. Apparently, there was enough glue on the first one of these that I made, and repeating it on the backside was not necessary. This one, however, needed it.

Add Decorative Centers To The Paper Rosettes

Now, you can get creative with covering up the center hole and the low-melt glue. You can see that I printed a vintage picture and cut a circular disk from it. Since this is just printed on regular copy paper, I also cut the same-sized disk from cardstock and used Tacky Glue to glue the print on the cardstock.

You will want to cut another disk for the backside, too.

I cut the circles with a compass fitted with a blade but if you have a circle punch, you can use it. Another option is to cut another circle and use a decorative star brad inserted in the center of it. Note that on these stars, the arms are not in the center. I used a 1/8″ hole punch to punch a hole slightly off-center. Once you insert the arms of the paper fastener into the hole, fold the arms open on the back of the project. Then glue the disk on the rosette.

Adding The Wooden Skewer

Attach the wooden skewer to the back of the rosette.

Taking into consideration the design on the front of the rosette, decide where you want the wooden skewer to be attached. Apply Tacky Glue to the end of a skewer and lay it into the corresponding fold on the backside. If you need to vary the height, just cut the wooden skewer to the needed length. In this display, the rockets and rosettes are both pushed into floral foam.

Cover the Floral Foam

Somewhere in this house is a bag of crinkle-cut paper shreds. 😫 I saw it just the other day when I was in search of something else! Alas, I give up! Amazon to the rescue, I ordered a bag of kraft paper brown paper shreds, which is supposed to be here tomorrow. I’ll update the finished product tomorrow… and probably find the blessed thing the next day! Lol!

In the meantime, just imagine shredded crinkle brown paper covering the top of the bucket!

And here it is with the shredded crinkle paper filler! I think it adds a nice touch, don’t you?

Need more Patriotic ideas? ◄ Click here!