Fun Origami: Spinning Tops

Very easy to fold and absolutely fun to play with, these spinning tops are a great project to amuse children and grown ups too (why not?) in a rainy day.

The "two piece blowtop spinner" (bottom left) was created by Taichiro Hasegawa, and the "three piece finger activated spinner" variation (bottom right) is from an unknown creator. The instructions to fold them can be downloaded here.
Tip: If you are using paper that is white on one side, fold both pieces of the two piece spinner starting with the color side up. For the three piece spinner, fold the base starting with either side up, but fold the knob-holder and the knob starting with the white side up.

The "jumbo unit spinning top" (big one at the top) was created by Kunihiko Kasahara. It is folded with 7 pieces of paper. The folding instructions can be found in the book Origami Omnibus: Paper Folding for Everybody, and also in the book The Art and Wonder of Origami.

In total, I used 3 sheets of 12" (300 mm) scrapbook paper, that I cut into 6"(150mm) squares. That gave me the 12 squares needed for the three spinners.

Have fun!