tutorial: pinwheel cupcake toppers

 

I was recently asked by a friend to make a cake for her cousin's baby shower that she was hosting. After going back and forth with ideas, she decided to have cupcakes for the shower, and we had the idea to decorate them with tiny pinwheels! It was a fun process trying to make tiny pinwheels, and I wanted to share how I did it with y'all!

1. First, pick out some sheets of pretty, coordinating paper. Scrapbook "paper packs" are GREAT for this. You won't need a lot of paper, so you can pick just a few prints, but I say the more the merrier! My friend Eryn picked this paper pack from Joann's to match the purple and green color scheme of the shower.

2. Cut the paper into even squares. For these tiny cupcake toppers I did 2" squares. Play around with the size for whatever project you have in mind. I also made a few giant 12" pinwheels for shower decor (but sadly don't have a picture).

3. Cut slits at each corner, going 2/3 of the way in towards the center of your square.

4. Put a dab of hot glue in the center of the square.

5. Carefully fold every other point into the middle of the square at glue it in place.

6. Like this...

7. I stuck a straight pin through the center of each pinwheel to help make a path for the brads I was using as centers, but if you have very pointy brads or just use a rhinestone or something as your pinwheel's centers, you don't need this step.

8. Insert a cute brad, rhinstone, button, etc to make your pinwheel's center.

 9. For cupcake toppers, make a bunch!

10. Glue lolly pop sticks to the back of each pinwheel.

 11. Get some plain jane cupcakes ready. This would be a great way to spruce up store bought cupcakes if you're not the baking type.

12. Another shot of the sea of pinwheels before being sunk into cupcakes.

13. LOVE IT!

These would be too sweet for a kid's birthday party as well! Have fun making your own!

P.S. I also made 12" pinwheels for decor at my wedding! Possibilities are endless!

-Beth