Pinwheel Pencils and Vase DIY with BoBunny and Xyron

Summer is almost here, school is almost out and it's time to no only dream of the beach and vacation but also make cards or gifts to give to thank all the teachers. This week the Xyron Design Team and Bo Bunny have teamed up to share creative ideas and I thought I'd work on something fun and simple you can make for your favorite teacher. I love paper crafting and mixing different materials, so I combined a little recycling and crafting with the paper and adhesives to create a gift with both function and fancy form.

Materials I used:

• Bo Bunny Trail Mix paper collection plus embellishments
• Xyron adhesives – dots and 510 Creative Station
• Twine
• Recycled Starbucks drink bottle – washed and dried
• Assorted glass beads
• Pencils
• Buttons (Buttons Galore and More – Brown assortment)
• Misc other materials to accent – bamboo stick, eyelet and hole punch, gems, stick on pearls

 Steps to make a pinwheel pencil vase gift

1. Tear paper, apply adhesive and wrap around the bottle.
2. Decorate wrapped bottle as desired. I used a bamboo stick, wrapped it onto the bottom with twine and then adhered a bird to the bottle overlapping the stick.
3. Add buttons and other embellishments to finish the look.
4. Create a tag, decorate however you'd like. Tie to bottle with twine. I used a stamp to include the date on the tag.
5. Fill bottle with glass beads. Make pinwheel pencils and other decorated pencils. Put in the vase.
6. Using scraps of paper, you can add little decorative flags to the ends of some of the pencils too.

Make a pinwheel:

1. Cut paper into a square.
2. Cut 45 degree angled cuts at each corner of square. Leave 1/2″-1″ in center.
3. Fold one edge of each cut piece toward center, adhere in place.
4. Adhere pendant to center of pinwheel.

For more creative inspiration today, check out projects designed by 2 more Xyron Design team pals: Stacy Rodriguez and Sharon Callis

I love these pinwheel pencils! You can use all kinds of paper patterns and colors to make an entire bouquet of pinwheels if you'd like. Mix and match the papers and then add different centerpieces to finish the decor. Make sure, if you want to be able to write with the pencils, that you make the pinwheels small. A square that is 2-3″ wide is perfect.