AMM Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Blog Hop! The hop starts today, Friday July 2nd through Sunday July 4th. Each blog will be showcasing a different project inspired by summer and all of its glory! Hop through each blog to check out the instructions for creating each project, then choose a project to recreate. Post your project in the AMM gallery and in this thread. You will have until Friday July 9th at midnight to post your project to be eligible to win an Echo Park Collection pack! More than one project created earns you another chance in the random drawing. Please be sure that projects are created especially for this contest. Good luck!

For my project today, I am going to show you all how to make a pinwheel. I made mine for our annual 4th of July parade that is held in our neighborhood, as I figured my kids would love to hold it (and hopefully it will be a windy day lol).

For the pinwheel, you will need:
a square piece of patterned paper or cardstock (mine is 6x6)
a thin dowel rod
2-3 large beads
thick beading wire
small circle punch
scrap piece of paper

Ok, the first thing you will do is fold your square piece of paper in half. Then fold it in half the other way. Now fold it along both diagonals. You are doing this to make your cut lines easy to follow. You will now cut from each corner edge towards the center, coming about 1/3 of an inch away from the center. It will then look like 4 triangles connected at the center.
I then flipped my patterned paper over. Whichever side you want to see the most of should be facing up. Now, stick a little bit of adhesive in the center (Tip - do not use a glue dot. I tried that first and it made the wire part that we will get to later very difficult. A little bit of a tape runner will do the trick.) Fold one side of each triangle towards the center, sticking it down on the adhesive. It does not matter which side of the triangle you fold in, as long as it is the same side for all four traingles.
Next, punch a small circle and adhere it to the center of your pinwheel to cover the spot where all the folded triangles are joined together.
Now you will need your dowel rod. I cut mine down to about 12 inches (it was thin enough that I could cut it with my scissors). I decided to ink mine up with blue for the red/white/blue effect, but you could leave yours as is, or decorate it with paint, glitter, etc.
Now, take your thick craft wire and wrap it around your dowel rod for a couple of inches. Once you get to the top, string one of your beads onto the wire. Depending on the thickness of the beads, you may need two. These will act as spacers and allow your pinwheel to spin.
Now push your wired dowel rod through the center of the pinwheel (tip: I poked a hole in the center first to make this step easier).
Next, place another bead on top of your punched circle. At this point, I cut my wire down, leaving just a short stem.
Using beading pliers, a scissor or your hands, fold the wire down to secure the bead in place. Voila, your pinwheel is complete!
For your very last step, you will need an adorable little girl to act as your pinwheel model.
She should get very excited when a gust of wind comes along and starts blowing the pinwheel ;-)
I hope you guys have enjoyed this project. It was easy to make, and I think it will make a great addition to our 4th of July parade.

Ok, blog hoppers, go on ahead now to the blog of the fabulously talented Tonya Dirk. Have fun!!