Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Tips and Tricks to Pinwheels


First I haven't written a tutorial in AGES for a reason.   Not a strength of mine but after being asked I had to say yes.   I hope this helps and inspires.   This is not a video but has a bunch of photos to help you step by step.  So lets get started. 

Materials used:

paper piercer MUST have
brads
buttons
paper card stock and double sided pattern paper
Washi Tape found in the Doodle shop.   I used some of the new Queen and Co Trendy Tape and it rocks.

1.   Cut a square.  Mine range from 2 inches to 2 1/2 square.  Use the double sided pattern paper or card stock.   Echo Park and Bo Bunny are both double sided.  ( I am going to make a big pinwheel later in the week.)

If you want to use just plain card stock fancy it up with some washi tape.   It is all the rage and I had to try it out.   Tear the washi tape and wrap it around the edges like this.   I did make a small pencil mark at 1/4 of inch so I would have equal "wraps" on each side.   Clip overhanging edges



2.  Cut from each corner to the middle leaving the square still in tack.   I just eyeballed this one.   Before doing this think about what you want in the middle.   Some suggestions are bling, buttons, brads or another piece of paper.


3.  Next decide if you want the pinwheel to have dimension or be flat.   If you want it to have dimension and actually spin then you will need to prep your paper.   Choose a corner.   Left or right.   ALWAY USE THE SAME CORNER FROM HERE ON OUT.   I always used the left.   I prepped the paper by wrapping around a pencil rolling it just a bit gently.

4.  Now comes the tricky part and there are several ways to do this.  You can glue the corners to the center or just poke a brad through the center.   I did one using both methods so lets start with the glue method and it WONT spin but is great for cards and such. Fold in the corner of choice and glue each one individual.  I used a button for the center knowing it won't spin but look cute.



I will show this one completed at the end.   The next method is easy just fold in all of the corners, pinch and then using your paper piercer pierce the center and insert the brad.   Or another way of doing this is to pierce the corners that you have prepped and then insert a sewing pin and thread up each corner then pin the center.   (photo has the pin)  Pull out the pin and then inserting the brad is quite easy. 





New day new sun location sorry about that.   

Well I hope this makes sense.   Here are some more pinwheels for you.   I made a couple using pattern paper.   The one has a fancy brad that is left over from projects past.   A great way to use that up.   The other two pinwheels are from card stock wrapped in washi tape.  Pick some of this up as it is fun and easy to use.   




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