We didn’t invent these penny spinners, but we had a lot of fun coming up with our own original artwork to decorate them. The northern lights imagery lends well to the spinning design, creating a colourful array of colours. These fun penny spinners are a great way to learn about a subject and create an artistic toy at the same time. We learned about Polar Bears, their habitat, and the Northern lights, and incorporated artwork inspired by it into our paper spinners. You can add whatever image you‘d like! Make it about learning or just have fun creating cool designs.

These paper penny spinners use pennies to make it spin, but don’t worry you can use an type of coin that you want. We also learned that it works with no coin at all. If you use thicker paper, the paper spins on its own. We still added a penny for the added fun, but it’s not actually necessary.

Make these double-sided or just use one side. The creative license is up to you!

Don’t forget to add lots of colours to your spinner so that it really stands out and looks super colourful when it spins, you might want to try breaking your the design into four sections, each with its own colour!

Materials:

1. Watercolour paper (or thick white paper like card-stock)

2. A pencil

3. Watercolour paints (or marker, pencil crayons or crayons)

4. Small or Medium paint brushes

5. A penny for each spinner

6. Exacto knife (for centre slit)

7. Scissors

Directions:

1. Make a circle about 4 inches in diameter. 2. Cut out the circle using scissors.

3. make a perfect slit on the middle to fit a penny perfectly. 4. Draw your design (we made a polar bear themed and learned about polar bears!) on one side of the paper or make it a double sided spinner and draw an image in both sides! 5. Colour your design using watercolour paints or other various materials like markers or crayons.

If you want, you can add glue to your penny to secure it better. We didn’t bother and it stayed fine.

Check out the Various Polar bear designs that we made as a family:

Be creative with your designs, add lots of colours! Swirls and circles work really great when spinning!

Have fun spinning your spinners on a table or the floor!

Our Northern lights design was the perfect colourful design for these penny spinners, they looked absolutely stunning when we spinners them.

An artistic creation that turns into a fun toy for children of all ages! Our two year old even knew how to spin them!

We hope you have fun creating these colourful penny spinners, Feel free to tag us on Instagram @acorns.and.aprons if you create this fun craft. We would love to see what you come up with and we might feature your creations as a story.