Handmade spinning tops with everyday materials! Easy ideas you can enjoy for New Year’s too
As New Year’s approaches, you may find yourself wondering what kinds of games to enjoy with the kids.
Here, we introduce ideas for handmade spinning tops that you can easily make using familiar materials found at home.
Using items like bouncy balls, paper plates, plastic bottle caps, and origami paper, you can make them right away without any special preparation.
They’re designed to be easy for small children to spin, and you can have fun decorating them in bright colors, so the excitement lasts from the making process through playtime.
This New Year, why not have both kids and adults try making spinning tops together?
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Handmade tops with everyday materials! Simple ideas you can enjoy for New Year’s (11–20)
Cardboard hand-cranked spinning top
Back in the days when there were no video games or smartphones, kids played by hitting baseballs or kicking balls around.
Then you wonder—what did they do before baseballs and balls existed? They hopped on one foot, played tag, and in the end, they knew how to have fun within whatever environment they were given.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, why not make and play with a spinning top out of cardboard? It’s simple: just cut a circle from cardboard and insert a Frankfurt sausage stick or a pair of chopsticks.
Have fun painting it however you like! In an age when we have everything, a simple cardboard top might even feel refreshingly new.
Fun to spin! Cardboard top
What do you like about spinning tops? One thing I find charming about them is how their impression changes when they’re still versus when they’re spinning.
When a top painted red and blue starts to spin, it even looks slightly purple—doesn’t that seem lovely? So, how about making a cardboard top and giving it a beautiful paint job for fun? You can simply cut the cardboard into a circle to make a top, but there’s also a special appeal to making one by cutting the cardboard into long, slender strips, tidying them up, and layering them in concentric circles.
Decorate it with colored paper or chiyogami so vibrantly that you can’t even see the original cardboard!
a spinning top under a transparent plastic sheet
https://www.tiktok.com/@n.annlee321/video/7097922114820295938How about making a cute, translucent spinning top that’s fun to craft and fun to play with? First, draw a circle on a clear plastic sheet and cut it out.
After cutting it out, stick some cute stickers on top.
Make a hole in the center with an awl and insert a toothpick—then it’s done.
Since it’s transparent, it looks adorable when it spins, and it’s cute just sitting in your room, too.
If you cut the circle slightly inside the cutting line, you’ll get a neat finish.
Be sure to make one and give it a spin for the New Year!
wind top
A wind-top that spins when you blow on it.
It might seem like a special kind of spinning top that doesn’t use a string or your hands, but you can actually make it easily with just a single sheet of paper! It’s easiest if you use small origami paper.
First, crease the paper so you can find the center, then cut from the corners to make a cross shape.
Next, fold the protruding parts to create the blades—and you’re done! As long as it’s slightly bowl-shaped along the central crease, it’s fine.
Once it’s finished, blow gently from above.
It will spin round and round around the central crease as its axis!
flyer frame
Here’s an idea for making a spinning top using flyers that come with newspapers or are posted in your mailbox.
It saves you the trouble of throwing them away, and best of all, you can repurpose something you thought was trash—how sustainable! The only materials you need are flyers and tape.
For the core, roll a flyer tightly into a thin rod, then cut off the top and bottom and use the firm middle section.
Wrap a slightly thicker flyer around this to form the base, and then keep wrapping flyers around the base.
The key is to secure it with tape as you go so it doesn’t shift or wobble.
paper cup spinning top
This is a paper-cup spinning top that’s easy to spin even for children with small hands.
Cut the side of a paper cup into six equal sections and spread them open, then decorate with stickers, pens, or origami paper.
Flip the top over, attach a plastic bottle cap to the center, then turn it back—your spinning top is complete, with petals that fan out like a flower! Because children can grasp the wide central area to spin it, even those who find pinching or gripping difficult can enjoy playing.
The steps are simple, so be sure to try making it together with your child.
Handmade spinning tops with everyday materials! Easy ideas you can enjoy for New Year (21–30)
Super easy! How to fold a spinning top
Here’s an easy way to fold a spinning top that even small children can make.
First, fold it into a triangle twice and open it back up.
Once open, fold all four corners toward the center.
Fold each of the four edges slightly inward.
Using the creases you made, fold the center corners outward.
Fold the triangular parts inward.
Finally, make firm creases so that the square lines become the top’s axis.
If it spins well, you’re done! The folding method is simple, so if it doesn’t spin well, try sharpening the creases or making small adjustments.
