Monday, June 13, 2011

Monday Motivational - Pinwheels

Happy Monday!  Thanks for buzzing by the hive today!  One of the hottest looks everywhere right now seems to be PINWHEELS.  What fun and versatile toys from our youth, and they are making a BIG comeback... They can be made to sit flat, as great embellishments, or with a couple of extra steps, actually catch the breeze, and spin in the summer sun!  Where will you pop a pinwheel this week?
Here is Court with a great tutorial on how to make this perennial favorite!
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June and I picked the challenge this week! I hope you like it! 

PINWHEELS


Never having done one, I had to look it up myself - which I did HERE

This is my version. :) 

All You Need is Love



Honeybee Courtney Lee 



INSTRUCTIONS:
1. I cut three 2" squares from the shadow function on the Cake Basics Cartridge (most of you probably have Plantin Schoolbook for this, but it didn't come with my Expression). You can also just hand cut 2x2 squares.



2. Score down the diagonals of the squares in both directions - making triangular quadrants (is that an oxymoron? I'm such a geek, I know.) 

It should look like this:



3. Cut on the score lines only half way down. This is very important for the pinwheel to hold its shape. If you cut all the way down, you won't have room for the brad to hold it... Ask me how I know... ;) 

It should look like this now:



4. Curl edge inward. I chose the ride edge of each section. Either will work I suppose! :) 


It should now look like this:




5. Using Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares, place one in the center of the pinwheel and curl the edges PAST the middle and adhere to the square. This will get you a much neater looking pinwheel than meeting in the center (believe it or not!). 
Close up of the Extreme Adhesive Square middle:



6. Punch a small hole in the middle of the pinwheel using your Crop-a-dile or other apparatus. 
It should now look like this:



7. Put a brad in the center and enjoy! :) 


Finished Product:

This was based on a sketch at the My Mind's Eye blog and I will be using it for their challenge. 

Recipe:
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Thanks, Court!  Just a little addendum to her awesome tutorial!  If you want to make a spinning pinwheel, here are the extra steps:

Use a corsage pin, or something similar to go through your pinwheel.  Slide a bead onto the pin to provide a spacer.
Using wire cutters, carefully clip off the extra length of the pin.

I used my hold piercer to start the hole in my dowel, then added a little bit of glue to the hole, and pushed hard to seat the pin into the wooden dowel.  Note the spacing which allows the pinwheel to turn.

And here we have a traditional spinning type of pinwheel on a stick
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Have a wonderful Monday and make sure to play along with us this week at Betty Bee's Buzz! Create a project using a pinwheel! Come back on Wednesday to link it up and see what the other HoneyBees created! 

4 comments:

June Houck said...

Court, your MME pinwheel card is yummy! I have a package of glazed brads that rarely get any love. Now I know exactly what to do with them. Great tutorial.

Betty, your pinwheel toy is cute! For my first attempt at making a pinwheel I also used decorative scissors, but mine did not turn out as well as yours. I went with a straight cut for my HoneyBee Showcase card for Wednesday.

Judy Ford said...

Very Cool Tutorial Court and June. Love the card! I have some not much used brads too that will do well for centers!!!

Simply AJ said...

Thanks for the instructions they are very helpful. Love the card!
AJ - queenofmynest(at)gmail(dot)com

Anonymous said...

That spinning pinwheel = awesome!