Don’t Squint – Star Pinwheels cut file – Lottie Loves Paper On-line Crop

My lovely friend Sarah over at Lottie Loves Paper is having a cyber crop this weekend and I volunteered to be one of the guest designers. The focus of the event are challenges based on the hits of the 80s and 90s so there’s lot of great inspiration. Can you guess what track mine was based on?

I chose Rain or Shine by 5 Star as my challenge and there are 3 possible options for inspiration 1) Use 5 of something, 2) Use Stars, 3) Record a memory about the weather, rain or shine. I managed to include all 3!

I’m trying to use up lots of Cocoa Vanilla Studios Boys Rule so I’ve got room for Legendary when it comes in soon! I love using this collection for school photos because the aqua ties in well with my daughter’s uniform so I just needed to find a photo that had something to do with the weather. Flicking through my box I came across this very squinty photo taken last year on the first day of the new school year.

I knew I could use 5 of something easily but trying to use stars on a layout about sunshine caused me to ponder a bit. I looked through my archives of star cut files and hit on the perfect solution – star pin wheels! I must admit that I did a little dance of excitement at this little aha moment!

I have several pinwheels available but these star ones were a perfect fit for the challenge and are a great way of showing both sides of the amazing papers. I cut 2 large and 3 small on my Silhouette using the Star pinwheels cut file (pre-cut here) but 3 of them were cut on single sided paper and so I had 2 cut 2 of each one to stick together. When I got to the crop to start my layout I realised I had cut them both going in the same direction so I had to use them as a template to cut some more by hand! #dufus

The pinwheels are created by folding the spokes into the middle and then attaching them together through the centre with a brad (the cut file actually has holes ready placed to help with this.) Then I mounted my photo and placed the main elements of the page down before spending a ridiculous mount of time fiddling and faffing with a few stickers and bits of chipboard!

I’m hoping to find some time to join in with some more of the fun challenges over on the Lottie Loves Paper facebook page. I hope to see you there!