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’s (41–50)
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?
Handmade spinning tops with everyday materials! A simple collection of ideas you can enjoy for New Year’s (51–60)
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.
A spinning top made from a plastic bottle cap
The only materials you need are a plastic bottle cap and a bamboo skewer! Use an awl to make a hole in the center of the cap.
Cut off the pointed tip of the bamboo skewer and trim it to just under 5 cm in length.
Then lightly sand one end so it’s not too sharp.
Next, insert the skewer through the hole you made and secure it at the center with a hot glue gun—done! When inserting the skewer, make sure it goes in straight and perpendicular to the cap without any tilt.
If it’s too long or the tip is too sharp, it won’t spin stably, so be careful.
A big buzzing top
A buzzing top you spin by manipulating strings in the air instead of on the floor or a desk.
It’s usually small enough to fit in your hand, but why not go big with the size! Cut the top part out of cardboard in a circle larger than your face.
After that, just do the same as when making a regular buzzing top: make a hole in the center for the string and thread it through.
Pre-wind the string around a few turns, then pull the strings on both sides to spin the top in the middle.
Unlike the regular size, the larger top takes a bit more strength to spin!
Floating spinning top
How about making a levitating spinning top that could even work for a summer science project? It isn’t that hard to build, yet watching it keep spinning while floating is truly impressive.
To give away the secret, the levitation is achieved with magnets.
It uses the repulsive force of magnets to float.
That may sound simple, but while the top itself is easy to make, the fine-tuning needed to get it to float is quite challenging.
By adjusting factors like the top’s weight and the subtle tilt of the magnets in the base, you can finally get a top that levitates.
shuriken top (spinning top shaped like a ninja throwing star)
Did you know you can make a spinning top out of origami? By adapting the origami shuriken that many of us made at least once as children, you can create a top that spins really well.
Simply put, it’s like fitting a small origami pinwheel into the shuriken.
The small pinwheel is stiff and hard to fold, so it’s easier if you make sharp creases first using a ruler or similar tool.
If you get creative with the colors, you’ll see beautiful hues while it spins, so it’s fun to try making it with different color combinations.