Spiceberry "MERRY" Banner

It's time to show you how I embellished the Spiceberry banner - now that I'm mostly recovered from the flu... (thanks for your well-wishes. If you can avoid this nasty bug, I'd advise it. It's a bad one!) 

I wanted to create some pleated rosettes to mount my "MERRY" letters on, so I began with some 1 3/8" wide strips of dictionary paper.

 For each rosette, I adhered two strips together end to end. I used 1/8" wide red liner tape for this because I know, never in a million years will it come undone.
 

 After the strips are adhered, I pleat them. Just a simple accordion fold - about 1/4" tall.

 

 
Then, to create the rosette, I adhered the two ends of the pleated strip together. You want to make the pleats come together and create a ring.

Then, you have to kind of wrestle the rosette into shape. It's not going to want to do this. It would rather stay free form and loosey-goosey. But you are the boss. Push one side of the pleats all in toward the center while flattening out the ring. 

Now - before you start wrestling, it's helpful to have some help standing by...
 

 

See that little red circle? That's your help. I punch out some cardstock with a circle punch (I used a 1 1/2" circle, but any size is fine as long as it's smaller than your rosette.) Put a nice big glob of thick white craft glue on the center of your circle. Then, once you wrastle that pleated strip into submission, you're going to grab that circle and hold it down onto your rosette so it stays nice and round and beautiful, like it should.

 

I like to hold it myself for about a minute, just so it knows who's boss.

 

Then I'll bring in more help so I can move onto the next strip that needs to be pleated. Find anything small and heavy that can sit atop your rosette until the glue is dried and there's no threat of that little thing popping up and trying to be a ring again. (Believe me - they'll do this when you're not looking.) Spice jars work great.

 

Once the rosettes are all dry, you can add them to your banner.

I wanted my banner to be sparkly, so I applied some white glue with my fingertip to the edges of each rosette (and my letters too!) and dipped them into white glitter. (See the white glitter all over my table? It's also probably all over my face and pants and dog. Such is the nature of glitter!)

 

I adhere the rosette and all subsequent layers with my nice thick, white craft glue. I use Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue. It dries super quick and never runs where I don't want it.

 
So there you have it. Don't those rosettes just add the most lovely dimension? I just love them! It's a merry banner, for sure.

Comments

[tami]

this is really great. I'd love to make one soon. thanks for your greats directions and pics.

[Janice]

Wow!!! Awesome!!!

[Debbie S]

Good golly that's cute.

[KindredEsprit]

This is brilliant! Thank you *so* much for sharing and for the easy to follow instructions!

I thought you'd like to see how you inspired me to create a Thank You banner for my friends' wedding!

http://kindredesprit.blogspot.com/2010/10/thank-you-rosette-banner.html