Pinwheel Centerpieces: Pool Noodle Hack

For Brielle’s birthday party invitations, I whipped up a few pinwheels using patterned papers within my color palette using this technique.

I attached them to paper straws and took Brielle to a local park for a little photoshoot. I was able to capture a few cute photos that we used for her invite but also some not so fun ones. Exhibit A:

Still a cute photo of an inquisitive little girl, but one who obviously did not appreciate mommy’s hard work and is breaking the pinwheel handle in this photo. I still wanted to use the pinwheels for something for the party, missy!

After a trip to Target, I picked up these adorable polka dot and stripe mini tins in the dollar spot. I decided to turn the pinwheels into mini centerpieces to decorate the party. But I was looking for the not so expensive approach. Instead of buying expensive floral foam to help my pinwheel stand upright, I came up with a better, more affordable solution: a pool noodle!

Derek cut up the pool noodle to fit in each tin and then I poked a hole to insert my paper straw pinwheels right inside. It was a perfect fit!

After adding some rocks to the bottom for weight, I hot glued some crinkle paper (from my Happy Child Nutritional Shake package) as filler to hide my pool noodle hack. Voila! My mini centerpieces were done! And for a really affordable price, I might add.