It’s time to get out all the red, white, and blue paint for 4th of July crafts! This craft can easily be adapted to any color so even if you aren’t celebrating Independence day you can make a fun noise maker for your music basket. My daughter absolutely adored making this and even though she created a product the focus of the activity was largely on the process. She experimented with the colors, experimented with where we placed the paint and the direction we spun the salad spinner. Crafts can be about more than the finished product, it’s all in how you do it!
Gather your materials. You will need two small paper plates, some red, blue, and gold paint. We used gold but any glittery pain would work well. You will also need a salad spinner, stapler, and some dry pasta or anything else you want to pop inside. I like bigger pasta because it’s less likely to sneak through the plates and spill. 
Start by putting your plate in the spinner and adding paint. You can do all the colors at once or one at a time. Have fun with this and experiment! 
Close the lid. Make sure it’s on tight. And spin. My daughter and I took turns spinning. 
Open and be amazed and if you want keep adding more paint to see what you get! 
We must have done the first plate 8 times. She was in heaven and I was loving how she adjusted where and how much paint she added each time. I could see the gears shifting. 
When they feel like their design is just right let it dry and grab the second plate. Repeat the process. The novelty had not worn out one bit with the second plate. We did this one five or six times too. This photo is a totally gratuitous one , I just thought it was cute. 
After they are totally dry ( ours took about 12 hours they were so layered with paint)
add the pasta. 
Pop the top on and staple. I stapled it in three places to get a start and then my daughter did the rest. Now you are ready to make noise at the 4th of July parade! 
Check out our patriotic 4th of July books for kids here!
Nina says
Oh man now I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of my TWO salad spinners lol. I never thought they worked well, but for this activity… perfect!
Michelle says
What a cute idea. I clearly need to go get a salad spinner. Maybe it will also encourage me to eat more salad 🙂
Allison McDonald says
I love salad but the only thing we use the salad spinner for in our house is art 🙂
Bonnie P. says
Thanks for the book recommendations, always looking for new books to read! 🙂
Sharla says
I’m going to be looking for salad spinners at garage sales this summer to do this with! Very neat idea.