Handmade Pinwheel

Sherri here today.  Can you believe we're in our last week of June.  My girls finally finish school on Friday, and we're all ready for the change in pace.  Sleeping in, going to the lake, and hanging out on the deck will take first priority.

For my final post of the month I have a bit of a tutorial for you. 

I love embellishments.  When you look through my albums you will notice that most of my layouts boast several coordinating bits and pieces on them.  There are some manufacturers, I enjoy working with who do not include any embellishments in their lines.  Lily Bee Design is one such manufacturer.  I adore their patterned papers, and most recently their journal cards, and 'bag of bits'.  Those are all still one dimensional peices of paper, however, and I find myself wanting to still add a little something or other to my page once I've finished.  Enter the pinwheel.  I recently discovered how to make my own, and have enjoyed adding them in place of chipboard and/or buttons on a layout.  To me, they are the perfect accent to a mostly flat page.  Here's my most recent layout using a handmade pinwheels.

Rest your mouse over the layout to read the journaling

To make your own, just follow these simple steps.  You may be surprised at how quickly these can be made.

Begin with a square, any size will do, this one is 4" x 4"
(the one on my layout above is a 2" square)

Score your square diagonally down the center from end to end.

Repeat the scoring down the other side of the square, this will help you identify the center.  Pierce a whole through the center.

Make a pencil mark on each scored line, about 1/3 of the way from the center hole.

Your square should now look like this:

Cut along each scored section right up to the pencil mark.

Your square should now look like this:

Using your paper piercer

pierce a tiny whole to the top right of each cut

Using a brad begin gathering the points to the center

of the pinwheel by poking the brad through each hole.

Once the brad is through every other point your pinwheel 

should look like this. 

Now push the brad through the center of the pinwheel, 

and split the back to hold it in place

Et voila one super cute pinwheel.

The first time I made these I couldn't stop and ended up making myself a little bouquet of them to keep in my scrap space.

I hope you feel inspired to create. If you end up giving these a shot, be sure to link us up so we can come and see.