Activity Overview
Combine craft time and playtime together with this easy to make homemade Perler Bead Spinning Top. Crafters of all ages will love designing the fun patterns that Perler Beads allow and making a toy to play with all in one.
Everyone is sure to enjoy how the color choices and design patterns meld into one as the spinning top spins so quickly across any flat surface. Make one or several and challenge your friends to some spinning top battles and see whose decorative spinning top is the last one standing.
We tried using different shaped Perler bead boards for this project and found that the two best outcomes came from the hexagon and the circular boards. The hexagon was the favorite for yielding a well balanced spinning top. Square boards were the least favorite because they were lopsided, needed adjusting, and didn't spin as well.
Materials Needed
- Perler Beads
- Wooden skewers or lollipop sticks
- Sharp Scissors
- Iron
- Ironing Paper
- Circular or hexagon shaped Perler Bead Board
How to Make It
- Make your spinning top by arranging Perler beads in a circular shape on the round grid board, leaving the center dot open. This is very important so that you can insert the skewer.
- Make the top 3-5 rows wide from the center point of the circle.
- When your design is complete, ask an adult to iron the Perler beads according to the package directions.
- Lay sheet of ironing paper over the beads and then iron them to fuse the plastic together.
- Turn the beads over and repeat to fuse. It should melt together just enough so that the open space in the center remains open.
- Cut your skewer about 4 inches long using a sharp pair of scissors. Ask an adult to help with this step.
- Place the short skewer section through the center hole of the perler bead top.
- Adjust the Perler Bead circle so that the skewer is point side down, level and the beaded disk is about one inch from the pointed tip. If you are using a lollipop stick like we did, it does not have to have a pointed tip.
- Hold you fingers around on the top of the skewer and spin the top.
