Halloween Pinwheel Card is Worth the Effort!

This Halloween Pinwheel Card is hard to make, but well worth it!  Mine sits out as a Halloween decoration and everyone that sees it wants their own!  It has 8 sides, each one difficult on its own.  But as a whole is is AMAZING!

This card is a very unusual size when laid flat, 11.5 X 5 so if you want to mail it, you must make your own envelope.  But lucky for you I have a tutorial to help you do just that!  See it here.  Or you could send it in a manila mailer.  I don’t recommend making it smaller, it is hard enough to cut as it is.

You will need:
Paper Selection for the Halloween Pinwheel Card

I made this card with traditional Halloween colors.  The grey base needs to be 2 sided and fairly strong cardstock (at least 100 lb. wt.) to stand the weight of the card.  I didn’t use any patterned paper because each color has pieces that are too small for a pattern to look good except the light orange and green overlays.  They could be done in patterns if you want.

Cutting the Halloween Pinwheel Card

This card has quite a few intricate cuts and lots of very little pieces.  It also has lots of colors. Be very careful removing them from the mat.  I had to recut several pieces.

Sort the pieces by what side they are on as you cut.  But don’t start to assemble the overlays until all the pieces are cut out.  It is less confusing that way.

Assembling the Halloween Pinwheel Card

This card is very difficult to assemble.  I suggest assembling the overlays one at a time. But do not attach anything to the base card pieces until the overlays are all done.  Look at the pictures or the Design Space file to see how each panel is put together.  

When there are multiple cut out layers, make sure that the layers are matched up well or it looks funny.  The tombstone on side 6 is deceivingly difficult to get lined up properly.  Make sure the  black outline shows on the proper side. 
 
On some of the layers, especially the more intricate ones, it may be helpful to cut some of the intricate lower layers away with scissors to make them easier to layer, but before you do it, make sure you aren’t removing any details you need.
Assembling the Base Card

Re-crease all the folds before you start.  Then glue the overlays onto each flap before you glue the bases together for spacing reasons.  First, glue the overlays as far away from the score line , but still leaving a border about the same width as the top and bottom.  This will leave about an inch between the overlay and the score line.

Next take two of the base cards and fold over the score line on one.  Glue that folded edge to the other right next to the overlay.  (Don’t worry about borders.)  Repeat with the second set of base cards.

Fold the first set so that they are together and bend up the unattached tab at the score line,  Glue it right next to the overlay on the next side and repeat for the final tab.  After the glue is dry,  Stand the card up and the top view should look like the second picture above, forming a square tube in the middle.

Attach the white swirls to the empty space between the overlays.

And your Halloween Pinwheel Card is done!  I know it was difficult and if you have any questions email me and I will try to help.  But everyone will be awed!

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