Festive Fourth!

Hello again from Maine!
We're having a great vacation (well, since I'm writing this ahead of time, I think I am having a great vacation) and I'm looking forward to our old fashioned, New England 4th here on Wedensday. 

I thought today would be a good day to give you some last minute ideas for celebrating at home.
The good news is that there is still time to make some fun decorations for your picnic table or deck.
I made these with some very special stampers in June and it was so fun!

You start with a 4" square of Designer Paper and adhere a 1" circle of cardstock to the center. Use Paper Snips or a Paper Trimmer (what I used to ensure even cuts) and cut from each corner of the Designer Paper Square up to the edge of the paper circle. This creates four triangles. 

Use your Paper Piercer to pierce a hole in the outer right corner of each triangle and once again in the middle of the 1" circle of cardstock. Gather all the pinwheel points you've pierced onto the end of your paper piercer and then pierce the middle of the cardstock circle again. Hold the pinwheel points in place between your thumb and first finger and remove the paper piercer, replacing it with a brad to hold them in place. Now, you can decorate as you wish! 

My Pinwheels are glued onto wood barbeque skewers with Tombow Multi-Adhesive. The skewer is glued between the back of the pinwheel and a 1 1/4" cardstock circle. You have to hold it in place for about a minute for it to set, but once it does, you're good to go. 

 

To make them stand up in the bucket, I used styrofoam. I bought a 1" thick sheet of styrofoam and used a round metal biscuit cutter to cut circles out of it. They were glued to the bottom of the bucket with a hot glue gun. Once it's in place, cover it with shred and pop in your pinwheels. Easy as pie!

Here's the matching card we made;

The pinwheel was done in the same way as the others, and the banner was cut with the Petal Cone Die. I stamped the greeting in Real Red.
The background is Real Red cardstock which was run through the Big Shot with the Stripes Embossing Folder. I used my brayer to add Whisper White Craft Ink to one side of the folder so it would transfer to the Red cardstock . A very fun and easy technique, you should try it out!

Happy 4th stampin' friends!
I have a special post for the 4th, so come check it out, ok?
~~Robin