DIY: a Pinwheel Necklace

Happy Friday!  I am so excited for this weekend!  This morning my sister & I are off to Las Vegas to meet up with our longtime friend, J.  We've known J since middle school- back then we would all sit in my sister's room prank calling people and giggling all night.  We've grown up a lot since then, but I always look forward to our yearly (sometimes longer) get togethers, because I know we're all going to go right back into that place of feeling like kids again.  J now lives in Colorado and my sister and I both live in LA.  Needless to say, we're all far from our Indiana roots.  I can't even express how excited I am to spend this weekend in Las Vegas with these two.  I'll probably have little time to visit blogs this weekend, but I will definitely catch up on Monday when I return, and you guys can follow me in Instagram while I'm gone- I promise to post lots of photos (and not just keep everything in Vegas! :)

For this week's DIY, I wanted to create something really fun & summery, and I have been seeing pinwheels everywhere lately!  Now that I'm on Pinterest, I see all these fun outdoor/indoor home inspired ideas which give me tons of home decorating ideas, and I took one fun outdoor idea and made it into something wearable! 

Things you will need for this DIY: Patterned paper.  You can choose however many patterns you want.  I used 3 different types of paper, but sometimes I think it looks nice to use all the same.  You will also need some sort of jewels/stones to use as the center of your pinwheel.  You will need ribbon to complete the necklace, and to put the pinwheels together you will need a ruler, scissors, glue, and cardstock paper.

Ready to begin? 

Step 1. Gather your materials.

Step 2. We are going to be cutting the strips into even lengths.  Decide on how large you want your pinwheels to be and remember that they will be double the size, as 2 strips of paper are used for each one.  I would recommend cutting the strips to be .5 inches or 1 inch.  I wouldn't go bigger than 1.5 inches.  For different papers, you can choose different sizes, because you probably don't want all of your pinwheels to be the same size.

Step 3. Tear or cut your strips.  I tear my paper using the side of my ruler because I like getting a rough edge.  If you are not experienced in tearing paper, you may want to cut it.

Step 4. Gather your strips.  It will take 2 of the same type of strip to create 1 pinwheel.

Step 5. Taking one strip, fold it back & forth in accordion style.

This is how it should look once you've finished.

Step 6. Repeat with a strip of the same width/length.

Step 7. Now we are going to put the strips together by attaching the ends with adhesive.

Step 8. Grabbing the other end of the pinwheel, squeeze the inside together forming the pinwheel shape and attach the outside edges.

Step 9. Cut a small circle from a scrap piece of paper and attach it to the back of the pinwheel using adhesive.  This will help to hold the pinwheel together.

Step 10. Attach a rhinestone or other object of your choice onto the front.

Step 11. Complete as many pinwheels as you would like to use for your necklace.

Step 12. Compose your pinwheels on a piece of cardstock paper in the shape you want them to be for your necklace.

Step 13. Glue the back part of the pinwheels onto the cardstock in the form you want them to be.

They are all glued to the paper.

Step 14. Cutting as close to the backs of the pinwheels as possible, cut around the pinwheels, leaving the cardstock paper attached, holding the pinwheels together.

Step 15. Cut two strips of ribbon in lengths that you want you necklace to be and glue them into the insides of the pinwheels.

Step 16. Wear and enjoy!

What do you guys think?  Will you try it?

Have a great weekend & thank you so much for reading!!