Some call them rosettes… I do, too.

Some call them medallions… I did here.

And others call them pinwheels… but that really is something else entirely.

Regardless of what you call them… a lovely rosette or medallion puts the EXTRA in extraordinary!

And….because you asked…I’ve put together a pleated medallion tutorial for you:

How to Make a Rosette…

It all started with the bolt of ribbon that I picked up in my travels.  Somehow, somewhere, a gal will find a use for American flag ribbon when it’s marked down drastically.  So after carting it around the country and failing to sell it at my last garage sale, I had an ah ha! moment.  Don’t you love those!

I had been playing around with the idea of making some rosettes for Fourth of July, but I didn’t have any patriotic-colored scrapbooking paper and I didn’t have any money to spend.   So what did this crafty-wannabee gal do?  Put on the ol’ thinking cap (Does anyone ever use that term any more?)  and remembered this ribbon.

To me, this was the best idea ever for patriotic medallions.  There’s no cutting…and the pattern of the ribbon works into the project perfectly.  Yay!!

I don’t know if you can find this exact ribbon, mine was made by LionRibbon.  I hope so, but if not, I have a link below to some tri-colored ribbon that is the same material, and would look fabulous as well.  The key to this project is the ribbon.  It’s very stiff, fairly thin, and is satiny on the printed side and dull on the reverse.  It feels like it was starched.  When you go ribbon shopping…it’s important to get this old-fashioned kind of ribbon.  Nothing else will work quite so easily.

(For your convenience, all the supplies indicated below are linked to my Amazon affiliate account. If you should order there I will receive a small commission on everything you purchase through those links, even non-supply items.  Thank you!)

Pleatead Medallion Tutorial :: Supply List

• Crisp Ribbon such as this 2 3/4″ Wide RED/WHITE/BLUE Ribbon – 50 Yard Roll
• Cordless Hot Melt Glue Gun
• Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue
• Fiskars Scissors
• Fiskars paper trimmerplus Scorer
• Ruleror Yardstick
• Cardstock
• Optional:
  Circle Punch, 1.50-Inch
  Circle Punch, 1.25-Inch
  Star Punch, 1-Inch
• You may choose to hand cut your own circle dots and stars from cardstock.

Pleated Medallion Tutorial :: Directions

1. To make the pleated medallion pictured here, cut 72 inches (6 feet) of 2 3/4 inch ribbon.

2. A Fiskars trimmer with the black scoring ‘blade’  works great for this project.  Use the edge of the trimmer as the guide rather than measuring.  It worked beautifully giving a 1 inch pleat.

3. Score the ribbon with the scoring ‘blade’ beginning at the front edge and continuing to match the previous score mark with the edge each time.  So easy!

4.  Score the entire length of ribbon.

5.  Using the score marks, begin to pleat the ribbon.

6.  Pull the ribbon together into pleats.

7.  Firmly press the pleats together to get the nice accordion folds.

8.   Draw the ends of the accordion together to form a circle as is shown here.

9.   Using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of hot glue on the top of leading fold.

10. Take the top fold on the opposing side and place it on top of the glued ribbon edge to complete the circle.  Be careful not to burn your fingers.

11.  Flip the accordion upside down and punch out a 1 1/2 inch punch from your cardstock.

12.  Carefully draw in the the pleats to form a circle and carefully hold it in place with one hand.

13.  Apply glue to the to edges of the inside circle and place the punched circle dot on top to neatly secure your medallion.

14.  Flip the pleated rosette so it is face up.

15/16.  Punch out a 1 1/2″ circle in silver or red cardstock, a 1 1/4″ circle in blue cardstock, and a star in white cardstock.

17.  Use a permanent paper glue to glue the cardstock dots and star together.

18.  Using the hot glue gun, apply glue to the top edges of the pleated rosette as shown.

19. Carefully center the cardstock star to the hot glue on the inner pleats.

You now have a beautiful patriotic pleated medallion to adorn wreaths and banners and more.

NOTE: If you choose a different type of ribbon you may need to enlist an iron to press in your folds and though hot glue may work, the inner pleats may need to be stitched with a needle and thread.  If you use some other type of ribbon, please let me know how it works out.

There are all kinds of possibilities for using pleated medallions beyond patriotic holidays.

Be creative.

Be Extraordinary!!

Wishing you An Extraordinary Day!

Diane

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