Tiny Paper Windmill

We seem to have Holland on our minds! After making Little Amsterdam in a Suitcase I moved on to make this tiny paper windmill.

 I have mine in my window with all of my other cute treasures. I put maps on the blade to represent endless possibility but you could make blades out of any kind of paper. I also think it would be really cute to make a bunch of these and use them to designate seating at a dinner table. 
You will need:

• paper
• glue
• scissors
• balsa wood or thin cardboard strips for blades
• paint
• paint brush

First, print out the template at the bottom of this post. My windmill is around 3 inches tall so if you want one this size use the template as it is. Otherwise you can reduce or enlarge it.
Cut out the pieces and glue the 6 bottom pieces together, then the 6 top pieces. Shape the pieces while you are gluing so that they are sort of bell shaped. Warning: this pretty tedious!

Since I used white paper for both my top and bottom.  I painted the top and bottom different colors using acrylic paint.

When the paint was dry I glued the top onto the bottom. I made a blade out of balsa wood and pieces of map, folded outward to catch the wind. The balsa wood could be replaced with thin strips of cardboard or other found materials. I poked a straight pin through the blades and into the top part of the windmill. I upended the piece and dropped lots of glue inside onto the pin stem to hold it in place. There was probably a better way to do it, but it worked for me.

Follow this link to download the template.