Summer Pinwheel

Hi:

Anita here with a fun and really easy tutorial to make this giant pinwheel.  It is part of a whole set of goodies that I made for my nieces to have a lemonade stand.  I used Lori’s Echo Park Collections called Celebrate Spring and Celebrate Easter.  The cut file that I used for the pinwheel is called 3D Double Pinwheel and you can find it here in Lori’s store and here in the Silhouette Design store.

Here is what the cut file looks like when you it open it in the Silhouette program.  You have to ungroup it as the pinwheels will only fit one to a page.

Here are the supplies that I used for the pinwheel.  You will need a hole punch that can go through the paper straw and a brad that has a long enough shank to make it through all the layers.  I used one of Lori’s Echo park I Love Christmas Decorative Brads.  I placed the sides of the paper that I wanted to see most of  facing up.  Two sided papers work beautifully with this project as you can see some of the other side when it is put together.

I used a paper straw and punched a small hole near the top of the straw.  Paper straws come in many different colors and look so cute with the pinwheel!

The first step in putting together your pinwheel is to put the brad through the two center pieces of the pinwheel.

You put it all together by pulling gently on the center piece that has the hole in it and pushing the brad through the hole.  Keep going until you have all the holes connected through the center brad.  Then push the brad through the straw.  Depending on how thick your paper is and how long your brad shank is you may have to fuss with this a bit.  I pushed it through with the assistance of my Tim Holtz pick and then bent the shank pieces down with a knife.

You can only see one tab of the brad but they are both there just underneath one another.  Turn the pinwheel over and you should be able to separate the two pieces to fan them out and show a bit more of the paper designs.

Here is a close up of the pinwheel.

I used a whole lot of Lori’s files to create this set and just love that huge pinwheel.  Have a great day and hope you have a chance to make something pretty today.

Hugs,

Anita