Windmills and Pinwheels

One and the same? I always knew these spinning paper wheels as windmills, but apparently they're also known as pinwheels. Does anyone know if this is a English / American difference or just one of those 'two names for one thing' kind of situation?

Staci Taylor had a tutorial on how to make this on her blog, you can see the post here. It was part of the A Million Memories blog hop last weekend. There were loads of great projects with instructions on how to make them, and this windmill really appealed to me.

I had to alter the instructions slightly, as my first windmill wasn't working properly, I think my wire was too thin and my beads too small. So I adapted it by pushing the wire through a button and twiddling it so it was double strength on it's way through the windmill and spacer. I used an old felt pen lid as a spacer instead of beads as it was a bit sturdier:

I was pleased with how pretty it looks, and my daughter loves it too. I even managed to get a shot like Staci's, showing how happy my little girl was when it started spinning in the wind:

It's going to be used frequently as a sand castle topper I think!

I liked the look of the windmill so much that I also made a few mini ones, and put them on a birthday card:

They are fun to make, though I'm still experimenting with what glue is best to stick the corners down, double-sided tape doesn't seem to quite hold it. I used a hot glue gun on the large windmill that my daughter is holding above, and a combo of tape and glue dots on the little ones on the card. PVA is probably best but I'm too impatient for that!

xx

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