How to make a kaleidoscope with your own hands

Some types of needlework for children are quite complicated, but there are many activities that allow you to spend time with your child fun and profitably. To create interesting and beautiful designer things, items that are usually rushed to get rid of without seeing any particular benefit are useful. But even from bushings from a roll of paper towels or a piece of a wide PVC pipe, you can make amazing things, such as a kaleidoscope. Any parent will be happy to help their baby turn what is considered garbage into a bright craft, because not only the process, but also the result will bring unthinkable pleasure to the whole family.

How to make a kaleidoscope from a roll of paper towels

Many adults remember what kind of emotions fireworks were brought to them by a game with a glass tube, inside of which unusual patterns magically formed. These multi-colored fragments were reflected on the internal mirror faces. But how to make a kaleidoscope at home with your child? Very simple. It is enough to save a cardboard sleeve from paper towels or a piece of plastic pipe, get multi-colored beads from your mother’s handmade chest and stock up with several tools that are easy to find in almost every home.

Necessary materials

Before you make a kaleidoscope of paper or plastic pipe, you need to collect the necessary materials for work in one place.

What is needed:

• a sleeve from a roll of paper towels;
• ruler;
• multi-colored translucent beads;
• Scotch;
• glue;
• glue gun;
• lid from a transparent plastic container;
• marker;
• scissors;
• aluminium foil;
• empty breakfast cereal boxes;
• colored paper for scrapbooking or bright self-adhesive film.
  

Kaleidoscope Workshop

Now is the time to find out what needs to be done to make a bright toy for yourself and your children. To do this, we sequentially do the following:

1. We put the sleeve vertically on a transparent cover from a plastic container and circle the lower part with a marker.
2. Cut a piece of plastic to fit inside the end of the roll.
3. Apply a small amount of glue along the inner edge of the paper. Then we shift the plastic circle into the roll so that the glue holds it in place. (At this step, you need to be careful, it is better not to trust the child with a glue gun, since it heats up very much).
4. When the glue hardens, we begin to pour translucent beads into the future kaleidoscope.
5. Cut off the second small plastic circle using the same method as for the first. We place it inside the pipe over the beads. We use a ruler to push the circle into the roll, if necessary.
6. We shove the ruler inward to measure the distance between the second plastic circle and the upper end of the kaleidoscope.
7. We cut 3 paper strips 2.5 cm wide out of the box for breakfast cereals. The distance that we measured will be long.
8. We wrap 3 cardboard strips with aluminum foil with the reflecting side out. Use tape to hold the aluminum foil in place.
9. We glue the strips of cardboard together with tape so that they form a triangle.
10. We insert a triangle inside the tube so that it is on top of the second plastic circle. If the product does not sit very tightly in the tube, you should fix it in place with tape.
11. Cut another circle from the lid of the plastic box to cover the top of the kaleidoscope with it. We glue it.
12. We cut out a piece of scrapbooking paper or a self-adhesive film of such a size that it can be wrapped around a roll. Glue the paper to the tube.

The toy is ready! Now you know how to make a kaleidoscope from scrapbooking paper, a sleeve from a roll of paper towels, beads and foil. Point it at the light source and turn it to see the color reflections of the beads inside.

How to make a kaleidoscope of mirrors

The best optical effect will be if real mirrors are used instead of foil, and the transparent plastic is replaced with Petri dishes. Before making a kaleidoscope in this way, you need to find a mirror and a place where it can be cut evenly. Then, three identical pieces of the mirror are fastened together with the shiny side inward according to the same principle as the strips of cardboard. For the base, PVC pipe trim is suitable.

Design features

To hold the mirrors in place, use pieces of foam cord. On the one hand, sometimes they make a plastic plug with a hole through which you can look at the colored patterns inside the tube. There are several ways to make bright details for the kaleidoscope that make up the picture. The simplest: draw on the Petri dish intertwining lines with multi-colored permanent markers. Beads can be replaced with beads or small pieces of glass. The technology is quite simple. Do not be afraid to create kaleidoscopes. Rejoice at the result of your children and rejoice yourself!