I have been wanting to make pinwheels for a while now and just haven't had the perfect opportunity to do so. A few weeks ago for my brother's birthday I made him a Hershey Chocolate Cake with Mint Buttercream Frosting (you can find the recipe here) and decided to make the pinwheels for a cake topper to add decorations to the top of it. I thought the first one was hard, because it took me a little bit to figure it out, but after that it was easy. After the first pinwheel, I cranked out another 6 or 7 in like fifteen minutes.
Supplies
Cardstock Paper/Scrapbooking Paper
Ruler
Scissors
Pencil
Straws
Pins
Directions
1. You can use cardstock or scrapbooking paper either one, but I think using a thicker paper is easier. First you need to cut the paper into a square. My pinwheels were 3in by 3in. After looking at my photos, I kind of wished I would have varied the size of my pinwheels some, but that is up to you.
2. Next line the ruler up with each diagonal of the square and use the pencil to lightly trace the diagonal. You will cut from each corner leaving approximately half an inch in the middle of each diagonal uncut. In the diagram above the dashed lines show how far to cut.
3. Now you technically have 2 tips forming each corner, for example 1 and 2 make one corner above. You will take every other tip (tips 1, 3, 5, and 7) and line it up to the middle of the square (the dot above), one on top the other. Push the pin all the way through the paper. Hold it in place and then line the pinwheel up to the straw and stab the pin on through the straw. The part of the pin sticking out of the back of the straw needs to be bent back into the straw to hold the pin wheel in place.
4. Using the pin allows the pinwheel to actually work and spin. If you are only making pinwheels for a cake topper and it doesn't matter to you if they can actually spin or not you could forego the pin and glue the pinwheel together and then glue it to the straw.
