Easy DIY craft: Fun and fancy rosette

Maybe it’s the designer rather the artist in me but I love to create things that are really useful as well as being enjoyable to make.  This week’s craft is no exception; it’s fun, fancy and maybe just a tad crazy/experimental!  The rosette can also be used again and again as a lighthearted award, reward or celebration piece, which your little ones will love.

This craft may look more complicated than some of the other tutorials I’ve shared but actually it’s really simple to make and can easily be completed in stages if you’re short on time or energy.  I’ve designed the rosette to be made together with your little one as a fun activity they can feel fully involved in whilst leaving the more fiddly bits to you.

Creative craft tutorials

In the past I’ve been more used to creating artwork with older children and teenagers but now I have a toddler it’s made me look at art and crafts differently.  Gone are the days when I used to turn my nose up at glitter or wince at the sight of sequins!  Now it’s more about just having fun and just enjoying the process, the crazier and messier the better!

It’s so lovely to be able to use my background in art education inspire others again through my blog.  I’ve had loads of great comments on my last two craft tutorials featuring decorative paper butterflies and this experimental PVA glue trapping technique.  I find this so motivating and love seeing your individual and creative approaches to my tutorials.  

I definitely want to develop the creative ideas and crafts side of my blog further as I love it so much and I’m sure you will too!

Fun and fancy rosette

Who doesn’t love being rewarded for their efforts?  Especially when the reward is a big, fancy look-at-me-aren’t-I-fantastic rosette kind of award, with added sparkles too!  

From working in education for several years I can confidently state that kids of all ages love being rewarded.  Even the older kids (and I’m talking sixth formers here) loved rewards of any kind.  I’ve celebrated success and rewarded effort with praise, stickers, postcards home, certificates, an ‘artist of the month’ gallery space and merits to name a few.  I think, out of all the reward methods I tried, one that never failed to receive an enthusiastic response from my younger students was the ‘Top Artist’ badge.  It was a simple badge but whoever got to wear it did so with pride.  

If a badge can have such an effect, why not take that idea and make it a little more fun and fancy?  A really creative and colourful rosette is certainly more flamboyant and wearing it would make anyone feel special, especially if you’d helped to create it yourself!

So get your little one involved and be as creative and crazy as you like with this to fully reflect the successes you’re celebrating.

What you’ll need

Sticky back plastic (approx 12cm x 24cm)

Sequins, stickers, glitter (or other materials to trap in the plastic)

Masking tape

Paint (I used ready-mixed poster paint)

Letter stickers (or foam letters/collage letters etc. which you can stick on with glue)

Ribbon (approx 1 metre and around 2.5cm wide)

A few extra scraps of fancy trimmings, such as ribbon, lace, ric ric etc.

A good, strong all-purpose adhesive

Sellotape

Safety pin

Scissors

Instructions

Draw around a circular object with roughly a 10cm diameter (I drew around my roll of masking tape) towards one edge of your sticky back plastic, making sure you have enough excess sticky back plastic to fold over and ‘trap’ your design.

With your little one, decorate inside your drawn circle with sequins, stickers and glitter (or anything else fairly flat which takes your fancy)!

Fold over your excess sticky back plastic to ‘trap’ your decorations then cut around your circle.

To create the first layer of frills on your rosette take your masking tape and stick it along the edge of your circle, creating a pleated effect by folding it on itself as you go.

Now let your little one go wild with paint and glitter to decorate your masking tape frill.  Any mess which gets on the plastic circle should be easy to wipe off.

Creating the second layer of frills using the ribbon is a little bit more tricky but having the masking tape frill in place will help.  Turn the rosette on it’s back and press the ribbon onto the masking tape to create a relaxed pleated effect all the way around the edge of the circle.

Turn your rosette so you can see the front again and make any adjustments to the look of your ribbon.  Once you are happy with your design,  use some strong all-purpose adhesive to stick the ribbon down more securely.

Add two short lengths of your remaining ribbon and any extra trimmings you can find to the base of the rosette.  Wrap a piece of sellotape around the top of your gathered ribbon/trimmings and use the glue to stick them to your rosette.

Add your lettering to the centre of the rosette.  I used foam stickers but there are loads of other options available too.

Use a small piece of sellotape to secure a safety pin to the back of your design.

It’s now ready to be awarded!

Make it your own

This rosette craft is so easy to adapt, you can easily bring your own choice of colours, materials and lettering to the design.  You could also experiment with scale.

I created my rosette as an award for artistic effort and creativity but you could turn this idea into a reward for anything really!  You could also turn it into a birthday rosette by replacing the letters with a number; what a fun way to celebrate!

As ever, just enjoy having fun being creative and please share with me how you get on!

How do you think you’d adapt my rosette idea for your little one?

I share loads of creative ideas on Instagram too, follow me over there if you are looking for even more inspiration.