In this simple tutorial I will show you how to make a cute paper rosette. Once you know how, you will be able to make them in a range of materials and sizes for all sorts of occasions!
You can use any paper to make a rosette but if you’d like to use vintage paper, I sell bundles of 300 sheets at £5 each
These cute rosettes can be used for a variety of things, I like to use in gift wrapping but here are some other ideas:
Get all your equipment together:
You will need paper, knife, ruler, cutting mat, glue, scissors and a stapler plus anything else you’d like to use as an attachment e.g. safety pin, magnet, hair clip etc…
You should have 5 big strips and two small strips – these measure 1cm x 17cm and 1cm x 8.5cm
Glue the five long strips into rings with about a 5- 8mm overlap – try to keep them all the same size.
Now comes the fiddly bit. For your first time you may find it easier to pop a little bit of glue inside the circles to create the figure of 8 shapes and then layer them (with practice you won’t need to do this)
With all the 5 circles layered pop a staple through them to hold them in place – try and aim for the centre as best as possible. (We will be covering the staple up!)
Try and make the triangles as symmetrical as possible. If using ribbon I would suggest folding the ribbon in half and cutting a diagonal line from crease to corner to create the perfect notch, but you don’t want to do that when using paper as you’ll see the crease!
You could glue them but stapling makes them more secure.
Hide the staples with a button or something decorative like a scrabble letter like I’ve used here – a cute way of personalising a gift!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial – if you have a go at making one please share on your social media and tag me @retrofromscratch so I can see it!
Remember you don’t have to use vintage paper to make your rosette – why not recycle some old restaurant menus or unwanted flyers? An old magazine? Or even newspaper? You can make them from ribbon too, just remember to replace the stapler with glue – I recommend Bostick All Purpose Glue
If you have any questions please ask! Happy crafting!
Instagram can be a wonderful thing! As you know my business is all about recycling and reducing waste. So when I saw on Instagram last month, that Linzi Loves Books was throwing away some of her Ladybird Book collection – I was quick to ask if I could have her old covers.
A little note from Linzi with many wonderful covers which so many of us would have read when we were little
I’ve been following Linzi for some time on IG and she has thousands of Ladybird Books in her collection now, so much so she can afford to get rid of doubles, and the ones that are so damaged they’re not worth anything. (To collectors at least…)
She had removed the original papers from the books to use for paper crafts but the covers were destined for the bin. She didn’t know if I would be able to save any, but we both thought it was worth a try, so I paid the postage and she kindly sent them over.
Amazingly there were very few that I had to get rid of. The rest, although well loved, will make fantastic notebooks and are available to buy from my online shop, now.
Some of them needed a bit more love than others. For example this Little Red Hen book had an unfortunate sticker on the front cover (often the cause of damage for old ladybird books – charity shops are a nightmare!) however I was overjoyed at successfully removing it!
Before…After… it is the same book, promise!
Let’s face it, we all love Ladybird Books and I think Lawrence Zeegan, author of Ladybird by Design, explains it perfectly: “A Ladybird book evokes strong feelings; deep-rooted memories of a time and a place when a simply designed and cheaply produced book could resonate across generations of readers.”
These books have passed through many generations, and it’s a lovely thought to know they can get a new lease of life as a notebook. As they are a little extra worn and don’t have their original pages, they are just £4 each. (Instead of £6) I have also added a drop down menu on the shop listing if you would like to add metal book corners for an additional £1.
Here’s one I made earlier…
They can be purchased with any of the upgrades from my shop; so they could come with lines, or as an address book, a diary etc.. just add the upgrade to your basket before you checkout.
There are so many things you can make with vintage book paper…
And if you fancy a bit of recycling yourself, you can purchase bundles of leftover paper from my notebooks to make all sorts of wonderful things. I hope to show you some craft ideas in future blogs -watch this space!
Back in March I was invited to help our Women’s Institute, The Brentwood Belles, with our entry for the Elizabeth Bell photography competition .
The National Federation of WI invited WI’s across the country to submit a collection of photographs depicting a year in their WI. We were to choose 12 photographs which could be displayed in any way chosen by our WI i.e. calendar, photo book, scrapbook or simply individual, mounted photographs.
We kind of left it to the last minute – but there’s nothing like working under pressure! Our photos were taken by a variety of members and were chosen by our secretary Tricia, to show what us Belles got up to over the last year.
My job was to present the photos. It was decided one of my vintage books would make a great cover and we’d present the photos ‘scrapbook style’. The rest was down to me. It was at this point I had to admit I had never made a scrap book before!
We chose this gorgeous vintage Girls Annual as the ‘Exciting contents’ really summarised our entry. And without realising the 8 also proved significant as 2018 was The Brentwood Belles 8th year!
We submitted our entry and the Essex Federation put us forward for National Judging! I was thrilled it got through, I certainly didn’t expect anything more. However amazingly out of the 135 entries submitted nationally, we were awarded highly commended and came joint fourth! The book was then displayed in Brighton for all to see at the NFWI AGM. I’m so proud of this achievement.
I thought I’d share the details behind each page…
The official blurb was written by Tricia Dyke, our secretary. My intention was to print directly on the card page but unfortunately it was too thick to go through my printer. So I printed on paper and used my Fiskars Tear Edger to give the torn effect.
This was my favourite of all the pages. We did ‘Strollersizing’ – exercising to Rock and Roll music! So I used an actual old record and cut it square – a Stanley knife cut this fairly easily. I used a shoe punch to create the dancing feet, some old music paper and vintage gift ribbon all coordinating in simple black and white.
A vintage map and an old postcard gave a bright backdrop for this photo of Prague. The stamp was made using a stamp punch. Throughout the book we added captions using a Dymo label maker.
This was the hardest of all the photos – it wasn’t a particularly great photo, but it has huge importance as we are big supporters of the local women’s refuge and every year donate Easter Eggs for the children, so with some thought I cut the photo up to ke s ack of eggs, and decorated a printed truck image with some glitter tape. The sign is made from the ice lolly I was eating at the time!
The bunting was made from an old Cath Kidston leaflet, left over twine from notebook packaging, an old doiley, piece of cloth and some polka dot wallpaper.
I really wanted to cater for all the senses so this page got a good spray of perfume – I made the perfume bottle using my Cricut. I used a clear piece of plastic to make a window and filled the bottle with clear and heart sequins that moved!
A map of Brentwood seemed perfect for our Walking Group photo – and the foot print stamp came in handy again!
That’s me pulling the face whilst yarn bombing this tree! I was so pleased to finally use this piece of knitting for the tree trunk – it was a little sample I made whilst on a learn to knit workshop – and as you do, I kept it, for ‘just in case’. 8 years later, I finally found a use for it!
I saw the idea for the cotton reels on pinterest, but to emphasise the ‘Sewing’ Group, I stitched the photo to the book. I made all the holes first using a card embroidery poker and foam mat, before threading with twine. The twine are all sample of twine I get sent when I buy the twine for my notebooks, so again a great way to re-use. The buttons were just cute…
This wasn’t really a very good photo, it’s poorly lit and out of focus but when it was taken no one knew it was going to be entered for a competition! However we wanted to include our darts team so I printed the dartboard and used coloured pencils to add some colour. The dart was made using silver vinyl cut on my Cricut and the flight was made using three heart shapes cut with a punch, folded in half and stuck together, from the paper from the original Girl Annual.
Again, I put some of the original book back by making an origami star. The back drop is cellophane glued in with Pritt stick – it dries clear.
Our final photo was of our wonderful President, Jane and I at our Retro Christmas Party! Here the 90’s met the 70’s so I tried to add that in the background with some 90s sparkle and some original vintage Christmas wrapping paper that I found in my nan’s house when when we cleared it out.
Finally I had to include this original article from the annual about photography – it was a photography competition after all!
It has definitely made me want to continue scrapbooking – if you haven’t tried it and don’t know where to start my tips are:
Having a ‘subject’ for the book allows you to focus.
Set a number of pages – don’t have too many. 12 worked well here.
Draw ideas and plan loosely – but be prepared to change it and don’t be frightened to introduce new ideas.
Anything goes – look around your paper / old cards and magazines / haberdashery stash. Mix materials and textures and try to excite all the senses if you can.
Use a strong paper / card pages to support all the things you are sticking on!
Retro from Scratch 