Have you seen the DIY handmade craft ideas using cupcake or muffin cup liners? After seeing these on Pinterest, I decided to make a patriotic rosette display using cupcake liners.
I used 14 of the mini muffin cups to make the smaller rosettes. I planned to use 14 of the glued regular-sized muffin cups to create one large rosette. That was not enough. I added four more, bringing the total to eighteen, to create one large rosette.
Patriotic Rosettes from Cupcake Liners
Supplies Needed:
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- Cupcake liners
- Mini Cupcake liners
- Tacky Glue
- Bamboo Skewers
- Dollar Tree Wooden Crate
- Acrylic Craft Paint
- Paintbrush
- Patriotic Cardstock
- Foam for Dried Flowers
- Red Decorative Crinkle Shred
Directions:
Steps for Folding the Cupcake Liners
Fold the bottom edge up to about a quarter inch from the rounded crease at the bottom of the cupcake liner. Crease the fold. Then fold the top down to about a quarter inch from the previous fold.
Flip the cupcake liner over. Fold the lengthwise bottom edge up to the center of the cupcake liner.
Fold the top long edge down to the center. Then, flip the cupcake liner over to the opposite side.
Match up both ends of the folded cupcake liner, fold in half, and crease the fold. Repeat for the remaining 17 cupcake liners.
Steps for Gluing the Cupcake Liners
Feel free to use a glue gun for this project. I prefer Tacky Glue.
Open one of the folded cupcake liners. Apply a line of Tacky Glue down the center of one side. Close and press the inside sections together.
Apply glue to each of the center folds and across the center edges. (See the picture above.) Fold the glued side against the opposite side.
You can see in the picture above that I lifted the cutting mat and set the glued sections under the mat. This held the sections together until the glue set. Glue the remaining 17 sections.
Glue the ends together to create a rosette.
Prepare the Wooden Crate
Next, paint the outside of the crate with acrylic craft paint. I used white chalk paint. Then cut a decorative paper strip that coordinates with your patriotic theme. Glue it onto the middle slat of the crate, wrapping the ends and the opposite side of the crate.
This small crate features cutouts for handles. I secured the paper strip, traced the cutout area, then cut it out.
Dollar Tree has a 4-piece package of flower foam. It is the perfect size for this little crate. I measured, marked, and cut the end off one. Using one whole one and the cut one, the two fit perfectly. You only need one simple cut.
Decorating the Patriotic Rosettes
This is where you can get creative. The stickers used for this project are from Hobby Lobby. If you have a Cricut, you can get creative with it. I have a star stencil I’ve had for many years. It is simple enough to trace the star shapes onto decorative cardstock and cut out the stars in different sizes.
4th of July cardstock packs often have cards you can cut out, and that is where I found the patriotic phrases.
I printed out the vintage graphic of the woman in white with the flag, cut it out, and backed it with a small piece of cardstock. You can find free vintage patriotic graphics online. The Graphics Fairy is one of my favorite sites.
Cut the bamboo skewers to different sizes. Then, apply glue to the end of the skewer and slip it inside one of the openings along the outer bottom edge of the rosette. Make sure the glued end touches the center edge of the rosette.
Positioning the Patriotic Rosettes
Push the wooden picks into the green florist foam in a pleasing composition. Try to position them so that each is fully visible.
Green foam was visible through the handle cutouts. This was remedied by cutting a small rectangle of decorative cardstock and slipping it between the foam and the inside of the box.
Finishing Details
Once you have the skewered rosettes in place, cover the floral foam with red crinkled shred. At this point, I was pleased with the arrangement, but felt the box was a little lackluster. The ‘America’ sticker centered on the decorative strip wrapped around the crate fixed that issue.
How To Make Paper Rosettes for a Beautiful Patriotic Centerpiece
Instructions
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.
Cut The Strips for the Paper Rosettes
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.
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 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.
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
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!
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