Mylar is kind of one of the best materials out there. It’s shiny. It’s metallic. And it’s durable. And if you haven’t worked with it before, here’s an introduction to the stuff in the form of simple rosettes and everything you can jazz up with them. You can buy thinner versions of the stuff online or go for the more heavy duty option at your local plastic store. (That’s Tap Plastics for anyone in Northern California.)
If all goes right with this simple tutorial, you might even want to invest in some tools that will help you make more elaborate mylar creations. A Silhouette Cameo can cut out amazing shapes. The possibilities are seriously endless. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s get the basics down. Forget putting a bird on it. Today, we’re putting a mylar rosette on it.
Materials:
– mylar (we used 5 feet, but the more you have, the more you can make!)
– glue stick
– plastic stir sticks
– elastic headband
– chain
– C rings
– adjustable ring band
– stretched canvas
– painter’s tape
– acrylic paint
– foam brush
– wrapping paper
– eggs
– egg dye
– bobby pins
– bamboo skewers
– heavy cotton string
Tools:
– scissors
– stapler
– hot glue gun
– needle nose pliers
Mylar Rosettes
Alright. First things first, make millions of mylar rosettes. Not sure how to do it? Let’s do something about that.
Cut strips of mylar. There’s no need to be overly precious about it. Wider cuts lead to bigger rosettes. We kept ours around 2-3 inches, but feel free to go nuts. Next step? Accordion fold!
Bunch your accordion fold up and pinch to set the fold. Since you didn’t use a ruler while cutting your mylar strips (shame, shame!), clean up uneven edges by giving the accordion fold a straight trim job, which leads to some super stellar confetti! Now, fold your accordion fold in half to make a crease. That’s where the staple will go. Go for it! Staple away!
Run your glue stick along the sides of the “bow tie” (that’s what your rosette looks like at this point), and push the sides together to complete the circle. Follow these steps a zillion more times to make a zillion more rosettes and get ready to decorate EVERYTHING.
Swizzle Sticks
Clink those cubes!
Using a glue stick, completely cover your swizzle stick with glue. Wrap the mylar “confetti” around the stick so the stick goes from ugly to magnificent. Add more glue to the very tip of the stick. Place the stick inside a fold of the rosette. Make a pretty cocktail, and cheers!
Flapper Inspired Crown
Jay Gatsby just called. He totally thinks you’re the cat’s meow and expects to see you at his next swinging shindig. He’ll be staring down at you from his window.
Grab that elastic headband that is usually reserved for workouts or keeping your bangs out of face during your nightly face-cleansing ritual. It’s going glam. Take three of the larger rosettes and simply hot glue them right onto the band. Let them overlap slightly. It looks prettier that way!
Medallion Necklace
For our swagger-packing medallion necklace, we chose to go with a thick Run-DMC-esque chain, but if you want something a little more dainty, that works too. Make a small hole in one of the folds of the mylar using a safety pin. Loop a C ring through the hole.
Attach to the chain of your choosing. Close the ring with a heavy duty C ring. Flaunt that swagger.
Cocktail Ring
We have a giant blinged-out spot in our hearts for a good over-the-top cocktail ring. We’re also down with some super simple hacking. And it doesn’t get easier than this. Just put a little hot glue on an adjustable ring band, place a small rosette on top (or big if you’re really bold) and get cocktailing.
Wall Art
Simple fact of life: There can never be enough wall art tutorials in the universe.
Here, we just picked up a square stretched canvas, used some painter’s tape to section off one corner of the canvas and painted it for a little pop of color. Our hue of choice was “Permanent Rose,” but pick a color to suit your interior needs.
Feel free to get wild with the pattern. But no matter what you do, definitely give it two coats of paint with a foam brush and let it fully dry before moving onto the next step which is the most important part…
Adding gilded embellishments! Place your rosettes down where you want them. Play around with them to get the look you’re after.
When you’ve got your masterpiece in place, pick the rosettes up one by one and hot glue them into place. Instant conversation piece!
Gift Topper
What the gift looks like is just as important as what’s in the box, and you’re about to gift the most art-deco glam package in the universe.
Just hot glue gun those little suckers right onto the wrapping paper.
Easter Eggs
Plain old dyed eggs are so gauche. But that’s why you made so many rosettes. And we hope you kept that hot glue gun plugged in, because you’re going to put some melting hot glue right onto the egg (seriously!) and carefully press your rosette into place. Suddenly Mr E. Bunny went from pastel and cutesy to shiny and chic.
Blinged Out Updo
You know we have an affection for tricking out bobby pins, right? Well here’s one more hack to add to the your list. Just add a dab of hot glue, place rosette and get on your way.
Cake Topper
Yes, cakes are pretty on their own, but for a truly special occasion, they deserve a little more detail.
So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to go to the grocery store and grab some bamboo skewers. Then go to the art supply store and get some pretty, heavy cotton string. Tie a piece of the heavy cotton string between two bamboo skewers with a simple double knot to create a support for the rosettes.
Hot glue gun a separate string into a fold of the rosette. Do that to two more rosettes. Then, tie each one onto the support string.
Looky there. You just made one mighty fine cake topper in under five minutes. Now celebrate all of your mylar projects by rocking all of them at once!
What’s your favorite mylar embellishment? Lay it on us in the comments below.
