Pinwheeling

When I was a kid, my mother refused to buy anything we could make ourselves. Last week I caught myself eyeing some garden pinwheels in a store, thinking about how to make them. It’s official; I’ve become my mother.

Of course I turned to Pinterest, where I found all kinds of templates and variations on the standard pinwheel.  We started with a pretty basic version, using simple supplies: paper, glue, scissors, a dowel stick, a few beads and we replaced the pushpin with a nail.

This pinwheel was appealing to me because it didn’t require a template, just two squares of paper glued together. We used some fancy squares leftover from another project, but really any paper would work. Since two sheets will be glued together, even thin sheets have reasonable thickness when the pinwheel is finished. And of course Amelia added stickers.

Once the squares are glued together, use a straight edge to draw a line from each corner to the opposite corner. Cut the lines from each corner toward the middle, stopping halfway. You’ll end up with four partial triangles, still connected in the middle. Bend – but don’t fold – one point of each triangle toward the middle, so the four overlap at the center.

Next is the only tricky part. Use a nail or pushpin to punch through all the layers of paper at the center.  Because our nail was pretty long, we used three beads as spacers, one at the front of the pinwheel, one between the four triangle points and the center of the paper, and another at the back.

Finally, hammer the nail into the dowel stick, just far enough to secure it.  And that’s it – wait for the wind, or make your own!

Want more Mess? Visit Melanie’s personal blog, A Crafty Mess, or drop by her Etsy store, Made by Mommy.