Let's make toys with paper cups! Simple and fun handmade toys
Let me introduce some handmade toys using paper cups!
If “store-bought toys get boring quickly” or you “want to do crafting play with your child,” try making toys with easy-to-find paper cups.
We’ve gathered ideas that children of preschool and kindergarten age are sure to love, so have fun!
Paper cups, which we usually use for drinking, can move or even become musical instruments! They’ll surely make kids’ eyes sparkle with interest.
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Let's make toys with paper cups! Simple and fun handmade toys (11–20)
gun
This is a simple pop gun you can make with a paper cup! First, cut off the bottom of the paper cup.
Prepare one uninflated balloon and tie the mouth of the balloon.
Cut a small piece off the untied end, then attach that end to where the bottom of the cup used to be—that’s it! After that, put a ping-pong ball or similar inside and you can use it for target practice.
A playable spinning top made from a paper cup
How about making your own traditional New Year’s spinning top this year and playing with it? You can easily make one with a paper cup, a straw, and a plastic bottle cap, so give it a try.
Leave about 5 millimeters of the bottom of the paper cup and cut around it with scissors.
If a child is making it, please have a guardian watch to prevent any cuts.
Once you’ve made slits all the way around, spread them out and draw your favorite patterns.
Make a hole in the bottom of the paper cup, insert a straw cut to about 6 centimeters, and secure it to the cap—that’s it! Spend a fun New Year with a one-of-a-kind spinning top!
Paper cup Tyrannosaurus
Pull the tail and the mouth snaps open! This is an irresistibly cute paper-cup Tyrannosaurus! Cut the rim of a paper cup and make two slits on the side; when you open it up, it becomes the T.
rex’s wide-opening mouth.
Use an awl to make a hole in the bottom, and thread a string through.
Make holes in the bottom and side of another paper cup for the body, then thread the same string from the bottom to the side—mechanism complete.
Finish it as a dinosaur using construction paper and markers, and cover the pulling section to look like a tail with construction paper, etc.
Paper Cup Bowling
How about an easy-to-make bowling game using paper cups? You could simply place the cups upside down, but they don’t knock over easily that way, so let’s make pins by connecting two paper cups at their rims.
It’s a good idea to put a few marbles or small stones inside as weights.
Then decorate them however you like—draw pictures, add stickers, or glue on origami paper! For the ball, crumple up newspaper or flyers into a ball and wrap it with tape or origami paper to finish.
cracker
Let’s make a party popper you can use at birthday parties using a paper cup! Make a hole in the bottom of the paper cup, then cut eight evenly spaced slits around the rim and curl them slightly.
Thread a rubber band through a chopstick cut to about 2 cm, pass the rubber band through the hole you made in the cup, and wrap aluminum foil around the end of the rubber band to create the popper’s pull lever.
Finally, put cotton balls or origami confetti inside the cup, and when you pull the lever, your party popper is complete!