Craft Your Own Homemade Fidget Toys With These 10 Common Items

Misplaced your Fidget Cube? Looking for an activity for a group play date? Just want to get crafty?

There are a number of reasons you could be looking for how to make your own DIY fidget toys. You may even have just ordered your new Fidget Cube or fidget spinner and want to get fidgeting before they arrive in the mail.

As the inventors of the original Fidget Cube, we can say from experience that making your own fidget toys from scratch is as satisfying as cooking your own meals.

However, just like recipes for meals can have you making long lists of ingredients you need to grab, many DIY fidget projects have their own ingredient lists, too.

Sometimes the best way to cook a meal is to look in a fridge and see what ingredients you have. We’re stealing that philosophy today for crafting your own homemade fidget toys.

Below, we’re sharing 10 common items you have around your home and how you can use them to craft a DIY fidget toy.

Rubber bands can be twisted and pulled to create a satisfying tactile sensation. 

They can also be wrapped around each other to create rubber band balls, or used with your fingers to create different designs. In addition to creating your own interpretative designs, you can check out the link below for making a star!

DIY: Try making this rubber band star.

Beads can be strung together in a variety of patterns and colors to create a visually appealing fidget toy. 

In addition to the visual components, it’s possible to make a "quiet bracelet" fidget toy, where beads are strung onto a piece of elastic that can be worn discreetly to provide a calming sensory experience.

DIY: Watch this tutorial on DIY fidget sticks.

Pipe cleaners can be twisted and shaped into a variety of shapes and figures, such as a spiral or a flower. 

These really do let the imagination run wild. For some ideas of where to go next, you can also turn several pipe cleaners into a "bendy wand” by twisting them to create a flexible and bendable tool.

DIY: Check out this 5-minute video on making a DIY pipe cleaner tangle.

Paper clips can be linked together to create a chain that can be manipulated and twisted in different ways. 

Truly one of the original fidget devices, you can connect several paper together and shaped into a snake-like figure that can be manipulated and pulled along different surfaces

DIY: Follow this guide on recycled paper clip fidgets.

Marbles can be placed in a small container or bag to create a marble maze that can be manipulated with the hands. 

Another example of a fidget toy that can be made with marbles is a type of sensory bottle, where marbles and other sensory items are placed in a bottle filled with liquid to create a visually stimulating and calming tool.

DIY: Make your own wearable marble maze.

Popsicle sticks can be glued together to create a variety of structures, such as a cube or a pyramid. 

By gluing several popsicle sticks together, they can be made into wheels that can be decorated and spun in a soothing way.

DIY: Craft your own fidget spinner with popsicle sticks.

Washers can be strung together on a piece of string or elastic to create a worry bead toy that can be twisted and manipulated in the hands. 

As the core piece of a fidget spinner, any extra washers you have lying about can also be used in this way. Check out the tutorial below!

DIY: Make your own fidget spinner with your spare washers.

Balloons can be inflated and twisted into different shapes and figures to create a fun and interactive fidget toy. 

Spare balloons can also be made into satisfying-to-squeeze stress balls by filling them with flour or rice and squeezed in the hands to create a calming experience.

DIY: 10 ideas for making interactive balloon fidget toys.

Dice can be rolled, stacked, or used to play simple games to provide a fun and engaging fidget experience. 

They can also be placed together into a sort of cube puzzle where several dice are painted and shaped to fit together in a specific pattern or design. With the tutorial below, you can take this to the next level with your own dice Fidget Cube!

DIY: Follow these instructions for your own DIY dice infinity Fidget Cube.

Clothespins can be clipped and unclipped in the hands to create a satisfying sensory experience. 

Kept intact, they can also be made into a clothespin pinwheel that can be spun and played with, or you can break them apart (as seen in the video below) and use the springs to fidget.

DIY: Make your own fidget gadget with the springs from clothespins.