Vintage Carnival Ferris Wheel by Thienly Azim

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I love it when I stare at Mary’s SVG files and have an "Aha!" moment. They don’t come very often, but when they do, I'll run to make them come alive! It was a plain wagon wheel and a purse. Enlarge the wheel a bit, shrink the purse by a lot, and there it was – a Ferris wheel waiting to be made!

SVG Collections Used

September Afternoon SVG Collection
Sunny Weekend Purses SVG Kit
Doilies SVG Collection
Everyday Cards SVG Kit
Party on Elm Street SVG kit
Happy Birthday to You SVG Kit

Supplies Used

  • Patterned paper (I used This & That Graceful Echo Park Paper Collection)
  • Quick dry Scotch Glue
  • Heat gun – used to secure the stoppers and bow in place, adhering pennants, flower and tickets
  • Wooden dowel (2” length)
  • Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Round 14, Button Studio Round 25
  • Brown ink to distress the edges
  • Assorted buttons
  • Linen Cord (to hang pennants)
  • Natural twine
  • Burlap (cut into a strip to tie a bow)
  • Crinkle ribbon

Dimensions

Here are the exact shapes, sizes and colors I used. Size to the dimensions shown below. If chart only indicated width OR height, Use "Keep Properties" or "Aspect Lock" to size files.

September Afternoon SVG Collection
wagon_wheel.svg 8.50" wide various patterned paper (brown tone)
Sunny Weekend Purses SVG Kit (Jolisa's Purse)
purse.svg 3.50" wide (1.00 shadow) various patterned paper (any color)
Doilies SVG Collection
doily 4.svg 4.25" wide various patterned paper (cream)
Everyday Cards SVG Kit (Party Card)
flag1.svg 4.50" wide various patterned paper (pink)
flag2.svg 4.50" wide various patterned paper (light pink)
flag3.svg 4.50" wide various patterned paper (light blue)
Party on Elm Street SVG kit (Extras - Raffle Tickets)
top.svg 4.00" wide various patterned paper (grid/number/letter paper)
bottom.svg 4.00" wide cream
Happy Birthday to You SVG Kit (Extras)
3d_flower_petals.svg 5.80" wide various patterned paper (dark pink)
Ferris Wheel Freebie (Click Here To Download)
ferris_wheel_base.svg 11.8" wide various patterned paper
Shape Library - Basic Shapes
circle (project base) 6.00" wide (cut 5) various patterned paper (project base)
circle (ferris wheel spacer) 1.00" wide (with another circle in the center to match the dowel diameter) (cut 16) any color (ferris wheel spacer)
flower1 (ferris wheel stopper) 1.25" wide (cut 5) various patterned paper (ferris wheel stopper)

Instructions

  1. On the wagon_wheel.svg, break apart and resize the center circle to match your wooden dowel diameter. Cut 4, layering two together for the front wheel and two for the back.
  2. Resize the purse (do not convert to shadow yet), break apart, and group each purse separately. Then, convert to shadow 1.00”. (If you don’t break apart the two purses, it’ll weld together when converting to shadow image.) Cut and assemble each purse. (Make 8 purses)
  3. Place one of the two wheels on the table (inside facing you), glue each purse down to the wheel, where the spokes meet the circle. (Make sure that you make all the purses face the same way)
  4. Insert the dowel through the center circle on that wheel with glued purses, and then insert the other wheel piece through. Glue that wheel to the purse. The ‘wheel’ portion is completed.
  5. Cut spacers, and glue them together to make a thick spacer (Used 8 circles to make one spacer, make two)
  6. Place the spacers on both ends of the ferris wheel.
  7. Cut the ferris_wheel_base.svg. Cut the ferris_wheel_base_sides.svg sides and glue them onto the inner sides of the ferris_wheel_base.svg. This will help to strengthen the base supporting the wheel. (You can add additional ‘sides’ if your paper is thin)
  8. Insert the ferris wheel structure through the two sides of the ferris wheel base.
  9. Cut stoppers, glue them layered together (I layered 8 flowers together) and adhere them at the very back of the wheel.
  10. You can either make another stopper for the front of the wheel, or in my case, I glued on the burlap ribbon which also served as the same purpose.
  11. Cut the project base (circle), again layering the circles together to make a sturdy base, and glue down the ferris_wheel_base.svg to the project base.
  12. Embellish as needed.

Design Tips

Thienly - SVGCuts Design Team Artist

  • Start out by thinking about the style. Style would determine the colors and the papers that you would use. Any distressed or irregular colored papers, as well as decorative, would look more vintage; whereas, solid/simple patterned papers would give it more modern feel.
  • What theme? Carnival? Circus? Spring? Any one of these, or even anything would work – but you need to find the right embellishments to fit that theme. Just because you have a flower that you’ve been wanting to use, don’t use it if you’re doing a circus theme. Choose your SVG files/embellishments wisely – they add so much to the overall feel of the project. Think about how it’ll flow together, you don’t want one item to stick out from the rest.
  • Variations! Try using different purse or even a simple bottom portion of a box to make the cars. If you feel adventurous, you can even attach the cars to the wheel using brads – which will allow the cars to ‘rock back and forth’.
  • Don’t have some of the collections/kits? That’s okay! Don’t be afraid to change a file that I’ve used into another, there are many pennants, tickets and flowers SVG files from SVG Cuts’ collections and kits.

This is a super fun project that works as a pretty home décor, or as a party table centerpiece. Wouldn’t it be fun to put some little jelly beans inside the cars? This would most likely be a conversation starter piece! I hope that you liked my project and give it a try!


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