Have a blast with these character inspired pinwheels! It’s a subtle nod to Mickey and friends featuring their signature colors. These are functioning pinwheels that use sewing pins so be careful when assembling!
| Supplies List: | Tools List: |
|---|---|
| Wooden Dowels | Scissors |
| Sewing Pins | Hammer |
| Round Beads | Nail |
| Scrapbook Paper (or double sided card stock) | Pliers |
| Scrap Paper | Scotch Tape |
| Glue Stick |
Instructions
First, select your papers based off of the characters’ signature colors.
I chose a red polka-dot pattern and yellow flower pattern for Minnie, red flowers and black patterns for Mickey, Blue, white and yellow patterns for Donald, a groovy pattern and blue polka-dot pattern for Goofy. They all came from the same paper pack, so the colors were easy to mix and match.
Most of the time, scrapbook paper will be 12×12″, so cut them down to 6×6″.
Using a slicer-dicer works great for getting perfect 90 degree angles.
Match up your papers and place them white side up.
If you’re using double sided paper, you don’t have to do this.
Use a glue stick and apply the glue to one of the two pieces of paper. Carefully place the other piece on top and secure in place. Make sure it has a good bond. If there is white excess, cut off with a scissor.
Diagonally, the squares should be just about 8.5″. Grab a Ruler and measure to the middle of the diagonal (4.25″). From that center point, skip to 3″ and 5.5″ and make a mark.
Draw lines from those points to their respective corners. Repeat for the other diagonal.
Cut along the lines you drew.
As you can see, you are able to pull up four corners and the pin wheel takes shape!
Prepare the Sticks
Take your wooden dowels, a thin nail, and a hammer.
Hammer the nail thru the dowels and pull back out.
I ended up splitting my dowels–they were pretty thin–but I was able to use tape to keep them together.
Putting it all Together
In the middle of each of those corners, poke a hole using a Pin. I didn’t do this until the end on my Minnie Pinwheel, but did it at the beginning for the other pinwheels.
Poke a hold in the middle of your pin wheel as well.
Take some Scrap Paper and cut out small circles to fit over the corners. Poke a hole thru those.
Grab your glue stick and start assembling your corners on top of the center hole. Each hole should stack on top of the previous.
Top it off with the small circle and put the pin thru.
I used different colored pins for each character.
Take a bead and put that over the pin. This helps the wheel spin freely!
Poke everything thru the wooden dowel.
Grab a pair of Pliers and hold the pin wheel securely with your hand as you bend the pin down the side of the wooden dowel.
Tape it in place! Yes the green tape is very jarring, but it faces the back so it doesn’t really matter. You are free to use whatever color tape you have or like, of course.
Repeat the entire process with your other characters!
Goofy 
Donald 
Mickey
You Made It!
Great job! I hope you make them because these are so much fun to watch in the summer breeze.
I added some silhouettes of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy to differentiate the pinwheels and be a little more obvious. You can find the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy PDFs from this blog here. I’m so grateful for these! I just used the Mickey and added an eyelash and bow to create Minnie in Illustrator.
Thank you for making it all the way down here! If you like this project, go ahead and check out our other projects! Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest and please share with your Disney DIY loving friends and family. We’d really appreciate it!
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