I’m always looking for simple gifts my kids can make. Spin Art is a perfect gift-able kid craft – it looks neat, and it is simple and fun enough that kids will happily mass-produce art in this way for, say, thank you cards! I also like to take multiple cards and frame them as a study of sorts.
We were sent the ALEX Toys Fantastic Spinner – and we love it as a battery-free tool that makes it really easy to create spin art – my three-year-old and five-year-old preschoolers were able to work together to make all of the cards featured in this post! The design of the paint bottles as well as the splash guard made this a virtually mess-free activity (parental supervision is required, especially for very young crafters like these two. Children aged six or over, as recommended on the box, can probably do this entirely on their own). My kids were able to load the paper, start it spinning, and add the paint all on their own!
I did help them remove the paper, just because they had a hard time not smudging the wet paint when they did it on their own. You can see my three-year-old making a card in the brief video below:
She added the paint first, which makes it spread out a bit less than if you add the paint while the paper is spinning. My son added the paint while this card was spinning:
My seven-year-old thinks this is a neat activity, too! She made spin art (all on her own, without my help) that she turned into a card for her teacher!
Spin art is also a great way to introduce young kids to color mixing, and with older kids you can use it as an introduction to Newton’s First Law of Motion! What’s not to love with crafting that teaches kids science and produces a beautiful work of art as the end product!
Do you have favorite crafts that kids can make and give as gifts? You can find more ideas on my For Kids to Make for Others Pinterest board!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
We have one but ours didnt come out this nice. Maybe we used too much ink. Love how it is a little sciencey too.
Less is definitely more with this project!
Gorgeous!!! Love the simplicity and beautiful results.
Thank you! It’s my new favorite way for kids to make cards!
They are beautiful! I remember making spin art as a kid but I haven’t done it with my girls. We’ll have to give it a try.
My kids really enjoyed it! Somehow I never made it as a kid, so this was a fun new kind of art for me to try as well!
My youngest loves this too. So pretty.
There is something magical about it :)
Wow! It looks so great! I love the effect it creates.
Isn’t it cool?!
that looks sooo fun! spin art is something i’ve been meaning to do forever! we need one of these, i think :)
It’s a neat little contraption!
These turned out really pretty. I like how you framed them.
They frame very nicely!
What a cool kit, I’m with you, I like that it doesn’t take batteries.
I love non-battery-operated mechanical toys!
Wow, your spin art is so gorgeous! We’ve never tried that but I do have a barely used salad spinner!
This was my first time trying it. It was a lot of fun!