pinwheel tutorial

Supply's needed for this project:
1 hammer
1 pair of scissors
1 sheet of 12x12 heavy duty scrap book paper
1 eyelet & eyelet tool
sm. dowel knob
plastic tubing 3/8 inch (about 29 cents a foot,at the hardware store)
wood doweling  1/4 inch
hot glue & glue gun
craft paint (for painting doweling,optional)
pinwheel template
drill (not pictured) for drilling a hole in your dowel stick

Template:
cut from heavy duty paper.

To begin, place your template on your sheet of scrap book
paper and trace all around.
Take your scissors and cut out your template.

Next, take your cut out template, hammer, eyelet tool and one
eyelet, to a surface where you can use the hammer without
damaging it.  I used a couple pieces of wood in the yard
as my surface.  Because it didn't matter if I put dents or
marks on these pieces.  If you have a work bench that would
work better.

Here I am using the eyelet tool to punch a hole close to the
tip of the pinwheel arm.  you will need to do this on all four arms
and also in the center.  Making sure to punch your holes in the
same area so that the holes all line up.

Here is a picture where all of the holes have been punched
in the pinwheel.  Also pictured are the eyelet tool, the plastic
piece you put underneath your pinwheel while punching the
holes, and your eyelet.

Here I have placed the eyelet  through the hole in the arm,
it doesn't matter which arm you start with, just continue
on around clock wise attaching all the arms to the same
eyelet.

Here are all of the arms attached and then the eyelet is pushed
through the center too.  Place your eyelet tool  underneath
the pinwheel.  Use the hammer to affix the eyelet to the pinwheel
so it holds all the pieces to the center.

This is a picture of the backside after the eyelet has been affixed.
To the right you can see the tool.
Take your plastic tubing and cut two pieces with a heavy
duty pair of scissors(like kitchen scissors).  your plastic
pieces should be about 1/4 -1/2 inch long.
Place one on the dowel knob, then insert the knob
through the eyelet.  Next place the other piece on the
dowel piece sticking out of the back of the pinwheel.
Set aside. 
Use your drill (very carefully) to drill a small opening
about 1/2-3/4 inches from the top of the dowel.  You can
drill all the way through, however it is better if you just drill
almost through, but not quite all the way though the dowel.
Next place a small amount of hot glue into the hole you
drilled.  Insert the dowel knob with the pinwheel on it into
the hole.  Hold for a minute or two, until glue is set enough to
keep dowel held straight.
Allow to set at least 15 minutes for glue to thoroughly set up.

And here is the finished pinwheel!  I took this
picture in my sewing room, because it was extremely
Windy here today, and would have blown this
paper pinwheel apart!

You can find the project sheet that I used to figure
out my pinwheels here
You can download the template from this link.
You can also use the instructions found here,
although I only used it as a guide, and altered
it to my liking.
linking to these party's Sew darn crafty & DIY project parade