Finn and I put together a little tutorial for you on how to make pinwheels. We used pinwheels as a centerpiece for Finn’s 3rd birthday last weekend, and it’s such a super easy and fast way to add a little fun to any party, we had to share our recipe.

Here are you ingredients for success:

• Cool Paper
• Fancy Thumb Tacks
• Wood Dowel
• Scissors
• Hole Punch

I’ve seen a lot of online tutorials that suggest using a pencil with an eraser as the stem for the pinwheel but I think the end result looks much better if you pick up some 12″ dowels from your local hardware store or Michael’s. We just press the thumb tack straight into the dowel and it works perfectly fine, no need to use an eraser.

We bought our “cool paper” at Michael’s we picked it up in the scrap booking section for .59 cents a sheet, but you could get cool paper at any cool store.

Step 1. Fold a piece of paper diagonally to create a square.

Step 2. Cut squares out of your paper, we recommend cutting 6-8 inch squares otherwise your pinwheel might get a little huge.
*It’s good to vary sizes for your pinwheels if you are making multiples, I prefer the look of different sizes as opposed to all the same.

Step 3. Fold the paper diagonally the other way. That will give you an “X” crease on your square.

Step 4. Cut approx 3/4 of the way up your diagonal folds towards the center of your square

Step 5. Make 4 small holes in the corners of your square (1 hole in every corner). Make sure that you punch on the right side of your cuts as you can see in the above picture.
* For our pinwheels we cut out 2 pieces of paper with different but complementary patterns and placed them back to back. This is optional, pinwheels look good with the pattern on both sides OR with a white or solid color inside, it’s really up to you. If you do choose to use two sheets of patterned paper we would recommend lining them up before you punch.

Step 6. Fold the 4 corners of your pinwheel to the center of your pinwheel and line your punched holes up with your thumb tack. Push your thumb tack through the center of your square and press into the dowel.

Voila, you did it!