The longer I embrace my own sense of personal style, the more risks I feel comfortable taking in decorating. This year, my holiday decor is no different. Throwing most everything traditional out the window, I managed to decorate my entire house without using one lick of greenery. Not one lick!
But, my stair railing felt totally naked without some sort of garland. I usually use greenery here (either fresh or fake, depending upon the year), so it looked bare without it. To keep with the colorful 1960s theme I had going in the rest of the house, I decide to create a foil paper pinwheel fan garland for my railing.
These pinwheel fans are SO easy to put together and look really fabulous. You just cut, fold and staple. Here’s a little more detail:
I bought four rolls of foil wrapping paper. I was picky about finding some that didn’t turn white when creased. The red, green and silver rolls are from Ikea and the blue roll came from Garden Ridge.
For each pinwheel, I cut the wrapping paper into two 12″ x 12″ squares. I used a rotary cutter to make that go quickly.
Then, I followed this tutorial to fold and assemble the pinwheels – you fold them like an accordion and then fold it in half to get one side of the pinwheel. Staple the two different pieces together (or use a glue gun) and you have a pinwheel!
I wanted them to have Christmas tree centers, so I designed a project to be cut out with my Silhouette. If you have the Silhouette Studio software, you can download my project file here. It’s sized for a 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of card stock.
With a glue stick, I glued a scrap piece of foil wrapping paper over the back of the Christmas tree cut out. Then, I applied some double stick duct tape across the back of the cut out. I then pressed the cut out and the pinwheel together.
Truth be told, it would probably be better to hot glue the cut out to the pinwheel – a few of mine have fallen off and I have to stick them back on.
I hung the pinwheels from my stair railings with a ribbon that I clipped to the back with a small white binder clip. This ribbon goes around the rest of the garland I had already tied to my railings – red lei tinsel, silver beads, and a teal/white chevron ribbon.
This is a fun alternative to the traditional garlands of greenery that you see every year at Christmas time. And with a different shape in the center, this would be a great garland for birthday parties or any other reason that you have to celebrate!
Let me know if you have any questions about how to put this together. Happy garland making!
Fun and pretty, love it!