Decorate your garden with giant outdoor pinwheels you can make yourself!
For some reason, spring has me so excited to add bright colors and new decor outside. Every store I go to I have to wander the isles of outdoor decor and this year I am seeing these giant outdoor pinwheels everywhere. I love them, they are the perfect way to add a little color to my flower garden until all the blossoms bloom. But I knew I could make my own for way less than the $10 price tag. So I took a good look at the way they were put together and set out to create my own DIY Giant Outdoor Pinwheels.
Obviously you could make these pinwheels with paper, but they would not stand up to the weather (however, I am considering making some for inside too now). But I needed a solution to make my pinwheels work for my flower garden. I found some brightly colored plastic binder dividers on clearance at Target for $1.48. Each pack had 8 dividers (2 each of 4 colors). Perfect!
I created a template for the vanes (I have no clue what to call them so I’m going with this, if anyone knows what they are called, I am super curious to know) of the pinwheel as big as I could get it on one sheet of paper since my plastic dividers were the size of a sheet of paper.
I had previously cut out plastic binder dividers on my Silhouette when I made my Monogrammed Moss Door Hanger so I knew I could cut out my pinwheel vanes really quick. I seriously love my Silhouette and use it ALL THE TIME! It makes great Mother’s Day or Christmas gifts for the crafting addicts in your life 🙂 But you can always go the old fashion way of cutting with scissors.
For each pinwheel I cut 6 vanes. Then it was time to assemble my giant pinwheels. For some reason I originally thought I could just put all the vanes on a nail and they would make a beautiful pinwheel. I guess I was a little delusional that day! I realized I needed to glue the vanes together at the points I needed them to come together. So I grabbed some gorilla glue (I wanted them to withstand everything). But that did not set up. I let it sit for 24 hours and when I checked, it all just fell apart!
So what is a crazy DIYer going to do when a project is getting the best of them… Tile their bathroom shower! Seriously, I put the pinwheel project on hold for almost 2 weeks and put all my brain power into fighting with tiles and grout (you can read all about my grouting disaster here). After the shower was done, a new toilet was added to the master bathroom, and the kids were entertained for a weekend while the hubby was away, I decided to tackle the pinwheels again. This time I won!
When I need something to stick and fast, I always turn to my hot glue gun! It is one of the greatest crafting inventions of all time. I am a little worried the hot glue will have issues in the hot weather, so I made sure to use a high heat glue gun, hopefully that helps, only time will tell. But for now, they look awesome, and if they have issues I will keep looking for something that can hold them together like I want!
To assemble the pinwheels (once I finally found my glue solution), it only took me a few minutes. I started by laying out the 6 vanes so that they were evenly spaced, lining up the front center hole. Then I hot glued them together by putting a ring of glue around the hole and pressing the next vane on top. Continue until all 6 are glued together at the front.
Then it’s time to glue the backs together. I found it was best to place them over the top of the front center hole so that they lined up perfectly. I went around the circle and glued the backs together at the center hole just like I did the front.
Now things were starting to look right, and they were sticking together perfectly. Yeah!
So it was time to add the center support. I decided to use a nail and a straw. I know it’s weird but it worked perfectly! I used a 3 inch nail, the kind you use when framing a house. And a smoothy straw (the smaller inexpensive straws were too tight on the nail). Stick the nail through the front center hole, then feed a 2 inch piece of straw on in, then feed it through the back center hole, and finish it off with a 1/2 inch piece of straw.
Then I needed a post to attach the finished pinwheels to. I had 2 square dowels left over from other projects, one was a 1/2 inch dowel and the other was 3/8 inch, they both worked perfectly! I tried to just hammer the nail into the dowel at first, but it split. So I grabbed my drill and put a little hole into the dowel, just smaller than the nail. Then for good measure I filled it with hot glue and tapped the end of the nail into it. Make sure not to squeeze the pieces of straw or it will not spin.
And it’s all done! I did cut the bottom of the dowel at a 45 degree angle so it was easier to stick in the dirt. Then we went outside to play. The kids are in love with the new pinwheels and I’ve never seen them so excited for wind. They would see the pinwheels spinning and run screaming over to get a closer look.
And they look so great in the garden. A pop of vibrant color for spring!
I am sharing the cut files for the giant outdoor pinwheels in my subscriber library. Click here to subscribe to my newsletter and gain access to all the freebies. If you already have your password, click here to download them.
Hi. I would like to make some of these giant pinwheels for our garden. But I cannot find the free printable pattern on the subscriber library. Please help. I really want to make a lot of this and I want to make sure I have the exact vane patter. 🙂
Thanks for letting me know Angel! I made some changes and some of the files accidentally got deleted. I put the pinwheel ones back in there so you ware good to go!
Hi, first of all, thank you for this tutorial. I made these and I have a great solution for the problems you were these pinwheels. NUTS AND BOLTS!! to replace the nail and gluing. It works like a charm. The screw even helps hold on the binder plastic. I made these for my daughter’s school. They were so easy. Thank you again!!!
OMG That is so brilliant! I need to make some more for our garden since they were destroyed in a crazy windstorm. Going to try the nut and bolt idea!
These are so fun! You’re so smart to use plastic binder dividers, too! Thanks for linking up with Merry Monday this week – I already pinned your pinwheels 🙂
Thanks Emily! The idea came to me while I was working on something else and it just made sense!
The pinwheels are so cute! I love how they are almost as big as she is! What a great DIY! Thanks for partying with us at Talk DIY to Me! Would love for you to come back next Tuesday!
Thanks Leanne! I love how big they are, so fun in our garden.
I am going to make these is shiny plastic that catches the light and hopefully they will distract the deer from my garden!
That is a great idea Penny! I would love to hear how it works, I know my parents fight the deer eating all the good plants.
OMGosh….I love these!! I am heading to the store to purchase some dividers!! I have purchased 6 of the large pinwheels (all on sale or with a coupon) but they are still pricey when on purchases several. Then the wood dowels do not last when in the usually wet soil in the Pacific NW. I tried sealing the wood and that helped.
I decided to purchase some EMT tubing from the big-box store and some rebar that would fit inside the EMT tubing. The EMT tubing can be cut to different lengths.The rebar was cut into 24 inch lengths. Then I spray painted the tubing different colors to match or contrast the pinwheel. Then I pounded the rebar in the ground, placed the tubing over the rebar, and then placed the pinwheel dowelling in the EMT tubing.
In using the EMT tubing you can vary the height of the pinwheels which looks great when your have several close together.
I love the idea of the EMT tubing and rebar! I was so excited to put them in the garden that I didn’t even seal the dowels, but we don’t have as much moisture as you do. Thanks for all your great ideas!
Thanks for sharing this at Dream Create and Inspire
Happy Mother Day
Thank you Maria! And I hope you had a happy Mother’s Day too 🙂
Such a better idea then just plain paper! I never would have thought to use binder covers. I will definitely try this with my kids. thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you Abigail! The binder dividers are working so great. They have already survived a whole week of crazy rain storms and look just perfect.
Such a cute idea! I love these! Perfect summer crafting idea to decorate the garden. Pinned!
Thanks! We are loving them in the garden, my kids actually prefer windy days now 🙂
These are awesome! My kids would love to have these. Thanks for the idea!
Thanks Emily! These are such a fun project for the kids! I need to make some a bit smaller for them to just play with now.
This looks so easy I think even I could do it!! I’d love it if you shared this on the DIY blog hop!
http://www.pleasuresofthenw.com/diy-party-no-3/
They are definitely easy Helen! Thanks for the invite, I will check it out.
Pin wheels are lots of fun, cute post, also I featured your hello bags at the party Dream Create and Inspire, its in the beginning photo. 🙂 Maria
Thanks so much for the feature Maria! We are definitely loving our pinwheels 🙂
This is a great project that I am going to pin for summer fun with the kids!
Thank you Bethany!
These are wonderful!! I have wanted to buy pinwheels for our garden for awhile but now I will make my own with your tutorial! Using the binder dividers is genius! 🙂
Thank you Kim! We are loving the pinwheels in our garden, now the only problem is I want to make many many more!