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 spinning tops with everyday materials! Easy ideas you can enjoy for New Year (21–30)
Marbles and rubber bands
You can make a spinning toy just by linking rubber bands and attaching a marble to each end! Hold one marble and spin the other to wind the rubber band around the marble you’re holding.
Once the rubber band is tightly wound, you’re ready.
Let go, and the rubber band unwinds, making the two marbles whirl around.
It’s striking to see them gradually spread out and the colorful marbles dart around quickly.
Styrofoam spinning top
Here’s a spinning top craft you’ll definitely want to try if you can get your hands on round styrofoam.
Draw illustrations on a round styrofoam piece, insert a stick, and make a spinning top.
It’s easy to make, and since styrofoam is a lightweight material, it should be easy for small children to work with, too.
Use crayons or water-based markers to draw whatever designs you like.
Kids can create works full of individuality.
By the way, if you draw on styrofoam with an oil-based marker, the styrofoam can sometimes melt.
Please be careful if you use oil-based markers.
Make Your Own Spinning Tops with Everyday Materials! Easy Ideas You Can Enjoy at New Year (31–40)
Thread-spinning top
Let’s try making a string-pulled spinning top that whirls with a whoosh and looks cool! It’s a perfect craft idea for kids.
This top can be spun just by pulling a string, even if you don’t have much strength.
First, make the shape of the top with Perler beads (fuse beads), then insert a split chopstick with a sharpened tip into the center of the top.
It will spin well even with just that, but if you add a straw to create a string-pulling mechanism, you can make it spin even more powerfully! It might be a bit tricky at first to wind and pull the string, but practice a little and give it a cool spin!
acorn spinning top
Many of you probably played with acorns as spinning tops when you were little.
If you still have acorns you picked up in autumn lying around the house, turning them into tops for New Year’s play is a great idea! Mark the center of the flat side of the acorn and make a hole with a push pin.
Insert a toothpick and cut it to a suitable length, and you’re done! If you secure the acorn so it doesn’t roll using a door stopper, or use an eye screw (a hook-shaped fitting), even children can work on it safely.
cardboard spinning top
This is a cardboard spinning top that’s easy to make by rolling it up.
First, take a thin strip of corrugated cardboard and flatten it with a spoon or similar tool to make it easier to roll.
Tape a toothpick to one end with cellophane tape, apply glue over the strip, and roll it up around the toothpick as the center.
Once it reaches your preferred size, cut about 1 cm off the tip of the toothpick, and your top is complete! Why not have fun making tops together by painting the sides or top, changing the size, and adding your own creative touches?
vinyl tape spool
With just vinyl tape and a toothpick, anyone can easily make this spinning top.
The method is simply to wrap the vinyl tape around the toothpick over and over! That said, just a few turns won’t make it into a proper top.
You need to wrap multiple layers until it has a certain weight.
Wrap the tape slightly below the center of the toothpick.
Keep wrapping at the same spot until it’s heavy enough.
Aim for about the size of an adult’s thumb, or a little larger.
Its biggest appeal is how simple it is, so give it a try!
Marble top
Did you know you can make a spinning top out of marbles? This top doesn’t just spin; when you spin it, a marble that was resting at the bottom rises upward in a mysterious motion.
To make it, simply glue together four marbles of the same size using glass adhesive.
Since they’re round and tend to roll, the key is to use masking tape cleverly to hold them in place.
After giving the adhesive plenty of time to cure thoroughly, try spinning it in whatever way feels easiest.
It’s a top with a mesmerizing, mysterious movement.
