How to Make a Spinning Cardboard Spiral-Easy Craft!
This idea will be a hit with kids as young as toddlers to pre-teen. It’s likely you already have all the craft supplies in your cupboard which makes it the perfect anytime craft.
You will need:
cardboard
scissors
glue
paint
paintbrush
gems or stickers
yarn or fishing line
one pony bead or small bell
pencil
plate to trace the circle
I started with a square piece of cardboard about 11 inches x 11 inches (27cm x 27cm) wide. Trace a 9 or 10 inch plate (20cm wide plate) on the cardboard for a perfect circle.
Cut the circle from the cardboard. This is not a job for the little kids. Big scissors and strong hands are needed for this part of the project.
So that the brown cardboard doesn’t show through the I painted a black base coat.
Paint both sides of cardboard and allow a few minutes for this to dry.
Now paint over the base coat with what ever design or colors you want. You will need to paint both sides again. Allow a good 10 minutes for this paint to dry before moving on to the next step.
Again, the strong hands and big scissors are needed to cut a consistent spiral in the cardboard. Begin cutting around the circle 1/2 inch (1 cm) wide.
Keep on cutting in a circle until you get to the middle.
Voila! The spiral is complete.
Use a pencil to poke a hole in the centre of the cardboard.
Loop some yarn or fishing line through the end. To make it spin the key is to loop a pony bead or a tiny bell under the hole and then pull the line back up through the hole.
I didn’t take a photo of this step so here it is afterward to show the pony bead. The fishing line is simply looped through the cardboard and then the bead and back out through the hole again.
This step allows for it to spin better than if you just tied a knot in the cardboard.
BEDAZZLE TIME!
Bedazzle: (verb) The art of taking ordinary things and making them EXTRAORDINARY by adding sparkles, rhinestones, glitter, stars, beads, etc.
This is the fun part!
Gather your gems, rhinestones and glue to decorate the spiral. The little box of gems in the photo above is from Dollar Tree for $1.25 – it looks small but there is enough to last a lot more projects! I love a cheap craft!
For toddlers you could use shiny stickers instead. Glitter glue would also jazz this up and hide some of the unintentional globs of glue that may end up drying on the project.
After the first side is dry, flip it over and repeat on the bottom side. This spiral is going to look great no matter what angle you are looking at it.
Allow it to fully dry.
And you are done! Hang the spiral by taping the end of the string or line to the ceiling so it can spin. I used an S hook to hang it from a curtain rod.