Jesyka’s Pinwheel Tutorial

Jesyka’s Pinwheel Tutorial

Making the Pinwheel

Don’t forget your materials!

1) Take your square of paper, and create guides from each edge toward the center, about 2/3s of the way down. Mark the center. You can do this with either a ruler, or by folding the paper in half from corner to corner, and cutting along the folds.

2) Cut your paper from the edge to the guide. If you are using a paper cutter, it’s easy to align the edges across a diagonal to ensure that your cuts all point toward the exact center.

3) Punch a hole at the bottom right corner (or bottom left — just make sure its the same corner!) of each triangular flap.

4) If your hole punch doesn’t have enough give to punch the center hole, use the edge of the skewer to punch the hole. :) If you manage to punch a hole with your hole punch, place the center hold on the edge of a skewer. This helps to keep the holes lined up while we fold in the edges.

5) Put a dab of hot glue near the center. Try not to cover the skewer too much (a little is okay), or you’ll have a difficult time getting the skewer back out.

6) Place the holes on the edge over the skewer. It’s  best to go in a rotational order. Glue in between each layer if needed. Now we have a basic pinwheel! I prefer to have a more finished piece, so I like to make a centerpiece to go over the little flaps in the center.

Making the Centerpiece

7) Get out your small square of paper and corner punch.

8) Punch those corners!

9) Using your hole puncher, punch a hole in the middle.

10) Add a bit more glue to the center.

11) Place the small paper over the skewer. I like to place it so a corner of the small paper is in the center of each flap. Take the pinwheel off the Skewer.

12) Place an eyelet in the center. Use the eyelet setter to really help it stick together, and keep it sturdy. The pinwheel is done and we are ready for the next stage!

Making the Pinwheel Stick

13) Place a small dab of hot glue at the blunt end of the bamboo skewer.

14) Cut your ribbon at a 45° angle and place the edge flush against the top of the blunt end of the skewer to get the ribbon to twist nicely and evenly around your skewer. To ensure you have enough ribbon, do not cut the ribbon from the spool until we are done wrapping.

15) Continue wrapping the ribbon around the skewer.

16) Place a small bit of glue at the tip of the skewer.

17) Cut the ribbon after you wrap it around the glue. Now get out your wooden beads!

18) Place the bead on the end of the skewer. Add some glue to make it stay! (not shown).

Assembling the Pinwheel

19) Slide a couple of beads on to the pinhead.

20) Next, slide the pinwheel on, front facing the pinhead.

21) Pull the pin through the back.

22) Add a few more beads to the pin.

23) Stick your pin through the ribbon-wrapped skewer about an inch and a half down from the blunt edge. If you’re having trouble, use an ice pic or a nail and hammer to start the hole. :) At this point you’ll want to make sure it spins, so blow on your pinwheel. If it gets stuck, you’ll want to add more beads between the pinwheel and the skewer (you can see how I added a fourth bead to ensure that it spins nicely).

24) Using your wire cutters, trim the excess pin.

25) There will be a little knub left, which could cut someone, so;

26) Put a dab of hot glue over the knub to protect fingers. You could cover with another bead or another piece of ribbon if you want to distract from it.

27) Glue a bead on the top, if you have not already done so.

28) And we are done! Admire your completed work. :)

Laelia’s Favor

The pinwheels now live in an aqua beaker on a shelf!

Pinwheel Tutorial: Materials

Pinwheel Tutorial: Materials

I made these sweet pinwheels for favors and decor for Laelia’s birthday party, and although I know there are plenty of pinwheel tutorials out there in blogland, I thought I would make my contribution seeing as these are a bit more elaborate than I have seen elsewhere. Since the materials list is long, (and I need a bit more time to prepare the step-by-step guide–Laelia is napping less and needing mommy more!), I’m releasing the materials list first, and hopefully I’ll have the tutorial ready to go tomorrow! Stay tuned!
1) Paper! A lightweight cardstock works best, too thin and it doesn’t have enough substance, and too thick it’s too hard to fold, although any paper will definitely work. We even used some spray mount and glued some wrapping papers together to make some pretty double sided sheets (wrapping paper is great for many things, it’s so cheap compared to the expensive sheets used for scrapbooking!). We did 6″ x 6″ for the large wheels, and 4.5″ x 4.5″ for the smaller wheels.

2) Scissors – For cutting slits in the paper. Alternately, you can use a paper cutter. I used both, depending on what was closest, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. A paper cutter will assure you a straight measured line, but there is something satisfying about picking up and just eyeballing a 45° angle…

3) Wire Cutters – The sort you’d use for jewelry making will work just fine. These are to cut the backs off the pins once we have them through the skewers.

4) Ribbon – To wrap around the skewers. Make. Pretty.

5)  Eyelet Setter – To help set the eyelet in the center of the pinwheel. I have this set from JoAnns.

6) Beads – I  used some glass beads I have had for about 15 years! Any beads larger than a seed bead has potential to work here.

7) Eyelets – These came as a set with the eyelet setter I bought. Use these at the center of the pinwheel.

8) Pins – A pin with a decorative head will work best, or you can glue a button or a cabochon will work as well. Just make sure that the pin head is large enough to hold on a bead. I bought these pins to hold the ribbon on the bouquets for my wedding. :)

9) Large Wooden Painted Beads – These go on the ends of the skewer to finish it off nicely. I bought a big pack of wood beads like these from JoAnns.

10) Hole Punch – You’ll use this to punch holes, of course! Use a small hole punch.

11) More Paper! – These are 1.5″ x 1.5″ pieces of paper that get prettied up and are used in the center of the pinwheel.

12) Fancy  Edge Cutter – To pretty up that piece of paper I was just typing about. :)

13) Bamboo Skewers – Use as the base of the pinwheel.

14) Glue Gun – We can always use a glue gun!

Now that you have all of your material’s gathered, head on over to the pinwheel tutorial!

A Laelia Outfit #4: Birthday Dress!

A Laelia Outfit #4: Birthday Dress!


This week I’ve decided to post her birthday dress! It is from Perryfinalia on Etsy. I bought some matching bloomers (not pictured) in the butterfly print. Her shoes are from H&M. I also bought the little cardigan from Old Navy that I featured in Outfit #1 for this dress, but she didn’t end up wearing it because it was around 90° here in LA!  Here is a cute pic of Laelia wearing it:

Laelia has her first taste of cake!

Hopefully I’ll be able to feature Laelia’s birthday next week!

Pinwheel and Balloon Invitations

Pinwheel and Balloon Invitations

Whew, can I just say we were completely exhausted after her birthday this weekend; we are still recovering from the craft-explosion (quite literally; my husband knocked over a very organized plastic bin of beads around 12:30 am Sunday morning!) that happened before hand, and the leftover decorations and food (one giant balloon remains floating! but all the chocolate cake is gone…)! I’m excited to get to posting about her birthday. Of course, about a million ideas were left out, some on accident, and some for the sake of my sanity (and/or those around me), but what’s great is that there is always another party. I wish I understood that when I was a bride, it would have been comforting to know!

So here we have Laelia’s invitations! The inspiration came from her inspiration board, of course! I hand sketched her name and traced it in illustrator. It became a little tricky (as it always is) to preserve the hand sketched look of the original; I used a couple different brush strokes, both on the outline and the fill and I think it worked out pretty well. I also used the cloud that I used in the fox print, which actually came from a very sweet set of nesting blocks I did for babystyle. It’s my most favorite cloud, it’s so happy! I didn’t have the cloud at first, and I kept thinking “it’s missing something“, and I thought in the middle of the night to add a cloud, and then I forgot for two days! I had a total mom brain moment (I did today at Target, too; I went to buy baby hangers — Laelia got a whole new wardrobe for her birthday — and I made it to the check out  with more baby clothes but no hangers! I didn’t realize it until the checker asked if I wanted to keep the hangers the clothes came with…ugh.) The font is futura, all lowercase. I wanted to use the envelopes we used in our wedding invitations, but I couldn’t find them locally and I wanted to start addressing them and doing the lining quickly, so I gave in and bought them from Paper Source in an almost identical shade. I had a little bit too much fun in there! The paper I used to line the envelopes also came from Paper Source, and I bought some additional papers that I used to make the pinwheels for the party favors. (I’m working on a pinwheel tutorial–I know there are a ton out there, but I think this one will be worth sharing!) I hand addressed the invitations and I used those great love stamps from the post office, and then sent them off in the mail!

A Laelia Outfit #3

A Laelia Outfit #3


Dwell Studio dress (size NB. It was actually really wide, so I have Laelia wear it as a top now), denim leggings from Target, and an ombre lucky brand cardigan. No shoes this week!

Also, yes, this shot is blurry! I think maybe my mother’s day gift should be a new camera. (*hint*hint* ~.^)

Welcome

Welcome to Visual Vocabularie! My name is Jesyka, and I am a designer, artist, mom to Laelia and Luca, wife to software engineer and UX designer Tyler, coffee lover, and all around enthused person. This is my blog; here I share my personal projects, whether it's a furniture makeover, a new painting, a birthday party, an invitation I designed, or a favorite outfit for my little. You’ll also catch a glimpse into our family life in Los Angeles.

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