Rosette Tutorial

Update 9/28/11:  Hi everyone!  Welcome to Rhinestones and Ribbon!

If you're visiting today from the Doodlebug blog, I'm so excited to have you here!  Isn't Doodlebug the coolest company?  I absolutely love their products and use them frequently.  This is one of the projects I made when I applied to the Doodlebug Design Team- so I created a tutorial back in August for the project and you've landed yourself on that post.  I welcome your comments and feel free to subscribe.

Enjoy!

Hi again! I'm so excited because I've been making some tutorials with techniques I love to teach. I've found making video tutorials is a lot of fun, and I love talking to the camera (as long as my husband's not home so he doesn't hear me talking to myself and think I'm going nuts). :)

I also love photo tutorials.  I'm a visual learner....how about you?
I've made a photo tutorial on a fun technique- Rosettes! Rosettes are everywhere lately, especially on embellishments for scrapbooking. I love new trends, so I thought I'd show you how to make them at home. I used these rosettes to make a recent project for Doodlebug. These were large rosettes, a little over 4 inches in diameter. (and yes- as you can see from the photos- I was crafting LATE at night :)

First step: Cut your 12x12 cardstock into 2" strips.
2" strips will make a rosette that's a little over 4" in diameter.
If you want a smaller rosette, just cut strips that are 1/2 the diameter of the rosette you want to make.
For example: If you want a 1" in diameter rosette, cut 1/2" wide strips.

I used Doodlebug's Sugar Coated cardstock in lilac. It's got mega sparkle, and it's really heavy duty.

Place your strips face down onto a scoring tool.

My scoring tool is made by Martha Stewart crafts and has 1/8" measurements, but I scored my cardstock every 1/4" (every black line). This makes pretty tight folds, and a rosette that stands off the project 1/4 inch. Use wider scoring measurements if you want your rosette to stand off the page a little higher.

After scoring, your strip will look like this! You'll use two strips per rosette for the effect I have. You can use one strip, but your rosette will not have as many "petals" and will look more loose.

Now, fan-fold each strip like an accordian. For each rosette you'll have two strips, so fan-fold one strip starting up, and one strip starting down. You'll see why below. (If you fold them all the same, it's okay. You can still use it).
Check out the sparkle!!! Are you in LOVE?

Here's one finished strip.

Here's why I like to fan-fold my strips in opposite directions. This way you can "link" them together and only use a small amount of adhesive.
You'll lay one strip on top of the other strip...

and adhere them together with tacky tape (sticky strip, it has many names) on the BACK of the cardstock (if you're using glittered cardstock). The reason why is that this cardstock's glitter will come off onto the adhesive and so the adhesive won't stick directly to the glittered side. So stick it on the back, peel off the red backing, and then glue the strip onto the front of the other strip and press hard to adhere.

Repeat with both of the other ends until you get........

This! A loop of beautiful accordian folded cardstock.

Cut out a circle of cardstock to glue onto the back of the rosette. It doesn't matter what the circle looks like because you're going to cover it up. The circle is a stabilizer and gives you something to hot-glue onto.

Find the center of the circle and apply a nickel-sized amount of hot glue. I use low-temp hot glue in case I get it on my fingers. Press the folds of the rosette onto the hot glue as seen on the photo below:

Then you just continue to add hot glue and apply more tightly folded strip, always making sure the hot glue is in the center of the circle. Keep compressing the cardstock and gluing until.....

you get all the way around and you have this!

Then I fill the center of the rosette with more hot glue just to make sure it's nice and secure. Especially on stiff cardstock like this.

Then you can embellish any way you like! This darling cardstock is from Doodlebug's Cake & Ice Cream line. It's also got glitter on it, and lots of fun girly party colors.

Aaaaaand........the finished product.

I finished the banner off using the Doodlebug Cake & Ice Cream collection's stickers and die cuts, more Sugar Coated cardstock and some dimensional adhesive!  Super fun project!

Thanks for visiting!  I appreciate your nice comments!
You can also check out other tutorials, cards, layouts, and subscribe to my blog on the sidebar

-Tiffany

Faux Suede Technique

I have a card on the Lifestyle Crafts blog today, and I just wanted to tell you about the technique used in making the flower. Though it looks like it's made of tissue paper or another material, it is in fact the same cardstock that was used to make the base of the card.

Die cut various sizes of circles, then crumple each one up several times to loosen the fibers in the cardstock. After 4-5 times, the cardstock will start to separate. Peel each circle, separating the layers, until you now have two circles. The two insides that were once touching each other now look like "faux suede." Layer all the flowers on top of each other with all the "faux suede" sides facing up, and crinkle the edges as desired.

Voila! Suede-looking flower!

Doodlebug Giveaway!

Check out the awesome giveaway at Doodlebug today. www.doodlebugblog.com.

You could win Monster Mania! My FAVORITE new line!
(but since I'm their #1 fan- I hope I win :)

Letterpress 101

I've spent the last couple of days with my L Letterpress making darling bridal shower invitations. The Letterpress is a tool that takes a bit of learning, and takes a bit of practice to get used to, but is a fantastic tool and can be great for mass-production. I made 30 cards, and I'm so excited to show them to you as well as the rest of the shower decor in about a week and a half when we have the shower. Lifestyle Crafts has a great tutorial on their blog about the most important thing to know about the letterpress- how to ink it. Once you get that perfect, the rest is a cinch.

See the tutorial HERE.

I used this plate on my invitations, it's from the Flourish Printing Plate set. I'm excited to share them with you soon.

Doodlebug's New Doodle Twine!

As if I didn't already love Doodlebug enough, now they have TWINE!!! {Squeal} and...lucky me, I WON some on their blog in a surprise drawing of their readers!!! Head on over and become a follower, their blog's pretty new, and wonderful, just like their products.
http://www.doodlebugblog.com

I can't wait to use their twine! I'm hoping to use it a lot on my future projects. I've got a ton of Doodlebug projects I want to show you on my blog-but I can't just yet...... You'll see why :)

Winner Winner!

I don't ever submit my projects for contests or publication, I don't know why, I honestly never thought about doing it until recently. Maybe I'll try it soon. I also never thought about having a personal crafting blog until now, and I have to say, it's a lot of fun. Thanks all of you who visit from Facebook, even if you don't comment.

This card was our family Christmas card this year, it fits our family perfectly! Two little boys and a little girl! It's full of sparkle. The cardstock sparkles, and I used a glue pen and some white glitter on the snow. The card was submitted to a Stampin' Up! contest without my knowledge, and I was shocked when I found out I won! What a cool honor! Even with the Artisans in the room.

Moral of the story- ANYONE can go for contests and publications. Even me :)

Heat Embossing

I am a BIG TIME stamper, LOVE it! It's one of my favorite things to do. There are tons of tons of techniques related to stamps, it's a lot more than just putting the stamp into ink and then stamping on paper (though you can do that too, of course). My all-time favorite stamping technique is heat embossing. This card I made a couple of months ago, so I don't have a tutorial for it, but it needs to be on my blog because I'm in love with it :)



Heat embossing requires the following:
stamp
Versamark or craft ink (pigment ink, or another sticky slow drying non-water based ink)
Embossing powder
Heat gun
Embossing buddy
Tidy tray
(the last two are optional but will make your life a lot easier)
First, you rub the embossing buddy over your paper and also over your Tidy Tray. This will keep the embossing powder from sticking to the parts of the paper you don't want it on, and also allows the powder to come out of the Tidy Tray and back into the jar when you're done. Powders and glitter have a lot of static, so they cling.

Then, stamp your image onto the paper with Versamark ink. Right after, put your paper over the Tidy Tray and carefully pour the embossing powder over the stamped image, covering it completely. Tilt the paper in every direction to make sure it coats the image.

Tip the paper upside down and pour off the excess powder into the Tidy Tray. Flick the back of the paper with your finger to knock off any straggling powder.

Lastly- lay the paper flat on the table and heat the powder with a heat gun. Don't use a hairdryer. Heat guns don't "blow" so they keep the powder on the image and they also don't burn you like a hairdryer would at this close of range. Heat guns do get VERY hot, though, so don't aim it near your fingers, and use tweezers to hold your project if you wish to keep from burning yourself.

As the image heats up, you'll see the powder melt. That's when you say "ooooh, aaaaaaah"
The most dramatic changes happen with metallic powders like the one above. It starts out looking like charcoal powder and melts like mercury. It's beautiful! Allow to dry, and create your project!

Patterned paper, embossing powder, cardstock and ribbon: Stampin' Up!

Tropical Party Decor

Everything you need to throw a Tropical Party! Doesn't this make you want to invite your friends over for a luau?

Lifestyle Crafts: Lanterns, surfboard, tropical tags, umbrellas, and hibiscus dies
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!