Wrapping Paper Pinwheels

I don’t know what came over me, but this year I decided to be a radical.

What can I say?  It’s Time’s year of the protester and I protested my normal Christmas tree set up.  (hey, just because I’m not sleeping in a park for months doesn’t mean I can’t fight The Man too.  Of course in this case, The Man is also me which makes it fighting The Woman and I’m fighting myself…..whatever this is getting too complicated).

Should you decide to move your already assembled and mostly decorated Christmas tree six feet to the right over carpet, I recommend getting a buddy to help with positioning and I especially recommend not doing it AFTER you have wine.

Hilarity ensues.

Cursing ensues.

We end this scene with minimal tree damage and more wine.

On to the next day.  Ahh doesn’t it look great?  I love the tree in the center of the room.

Hmmm you know, it does seem to highlight a little bit that I’ve lived in my house for 5 years and haven’t actually made the decision to commit to curtains in the living room…..I just got some in the family room like a year ago….

Well curtains are waaay too big of a decision to make with the Christmas season busy-ness upon us, so I had to find another way.  I saw this paper pinwheel backdrop and thought it was genius. 

I know, I have it….I will make a pinwheel backdrop out of wrapping paper.  This way it will coordinate perfectly with not just the tree, but all the presents underneath it too!  The tutorial is super easy and soon I was making pinwheels like mad.

Ali’s tutorial calls for stapling the pinwheels together – I found that it was faster and created a better finished look if I used a glue stick to seal the seams….plus you know how I love a good glue stick.

Ali also used two or three sections of folded fans for each pinwheel.  For pinwheels in the 10″-20″ range, I also used three sections.  For my biggest (30″) and smallest (6″) pinwheels  I only needed two sections.  As I got lazier, I used only two sections for some of the 10″-20″ pinwheels.  It’s a bit of a stretch but it can work.  If you discover that the glue won’t hold, just cheat and put in a paperclip on the backside of the pinwheel to hold the edge until the glue sets. 

The tutorial calls for pinning each wheel to the wall.  Hmmm, I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of holes in my wall so I rustled around in the garage and found two 8′ lengths of replacement lattice strips.  I created a rough frame of about 3’x4′ with cross braces at the corners. (It was promptly covered in pinwheels so I’ll have to take a picture of the back after I take it down so you have an idea of what it looks like).  This frame is so light I actually hot glued the entire thing together.

On to assembly!  I laid out my pinwheels to make sure I had enough (’cause you know the first two or three times I practiced layouts, I totally did not have enough….back to the folding and gluing grind).

Once I liked what I had, I hot glued the pinwheels to the frame.

To give added dimension and support to some of the larger pinwheels, I glued a paper plate to the back of the pinwheel.  This makes the pinwheel stand out from the others as well as hold it’s shape a bit better. 

The finished piece ended up about 5’x6′ and I struggled to get it hung up behind the Christmas tree.  (Pro Tip: Hang it up BEFORE you put the Christmas tree there…so much easier.)  I briefly considered moving the tree and then I remembered the hilarity and cursing (see above) of my last Christmas tree movement and decided to leave well enough alone.

I stepped back to admire my work.  Ahhh, isn’t she beautiful? 

What the crap???  You can hardly see it!  Damn it!  This tree is ginormous!

Back to making more pinwheels.  Oh, you know I was excited about that.

OK but totally worth it.  And from the front door it looks even better.

I love my pinwheels

They are super festive and coordinate perfectly! 

And if you think I’m not leaving this up for Oscar Party, you are crazy.  This is going to be on the wall for a while….mainly because I haven’t figure out where I’m going to store it in my house….it’s huge!

Happy Folding

–Martta

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