Follow the beat of your own drum little one, make noise—your own noise, be bold and don’t hold back! Just a few things I tell my boys every week. This DIY has been brewing in my mind for some time actually and now is the time to release it to all the vibrant little musicians out there aka ALL children.
My boys loved decking these out in all the ways that this project allows you to do so (one of the reasons I love it so much) and once they were finished they played and played with them. Both of my boys went and grabbed a hoodie + some sunglasses and started to beat box to their drum solos in their gear of choice, can you get any cooler than that? They each took turns making cool beats and then just overlapping their sounds of course but it’s interesting to see what each age group does with these cool noise makers.
Enjoy creating these with your littles, there are some steps where they will definitely need your help—again this is purposeful on our side to promote bonding. Also, I don’t know about you but getting to get crafty and creative with my littles makes me super happy and getting to use the fun stickers and sequins is a treat since there seems to be an invisible age where most (not all) humans leave tools like this to the kids to create with. Enjoy! I know we sure did.
MESSY LEVEL: 2
There’s a good amount of gluing in this project, get ready for some sticky fingers! It’s worth it, promise.
SUPPLIES:
Coffee bean can with lid (for drum) / foil tin (for tambourine drum)
Kraft paper / white acrylic paint + paintbrush
Cool paper of your choice to wrap your drum in
Glue
Scissors
Drill / Hole punch
String/plastic lacing string to create drum strap
Stickers and/or sequins
Beads to add flair to your strap *optional*
2 Pencils to use as drum sticks *optional*
Streamers/paper/pipe cleaners to wrap your drum sticks in *optional*
STEP 1: Start with either a coffee bean can or a foil tin as the base of your drum. We like to start with a blank canvas so you can either paint your can with white paint or cover it in kraft paper like we did. This step is optional. Can you tell we love our Trader Joe’s coffee around here?
STEP 2: Wrap your can / tin tray in a cool paper of your choice. We are working with a sticky glitter paper that we really like. We will also be adding glue to attach it for extra hold.
STEP 3: Once you’ve wrapped your container in your cool paper, go ahead and hole punch your drum. You will create 2 punches total one on each side where you will attach your drum strap. We used a drill to do this on our coffee can (LOVE working with power tools) and used a hole punch to complete this step on our foil tin. You can also use scissors if that works best for you!
STEP 4: Now you can decorate your drum and drumsticks (pencils) using stickers, glitter, pipe cleaners, streamers—anything you want to use to make it vibrant and festive! Let dry.
STEP 5: Measure the string to fit around your littles neck so that the drum will hang right at his/her torso, leave a bit of excess for beading and tying to the drum. Loop your string through one of the holes on the side of your drum and tie into a knot. If you want to add beads to your strap for extra decor go ahead and add them here. Then loop and tie the other end of your string through the hole opposite to the initial one you already completed and divide the beads to either side as you would like.
STEP 6: Put the lid onto the container and decorate that if you would like. We added some “FOLLOW THE BEAT” flair to ours and we love it! There you have it: A DRUM!! Have so much fun making some NOOIIIISSSSEEEE and coming up with cool beats! Take pictures/videos of your awesome new drum and tag if you post so we can see! @allkidsaregifted #allkidsaregifted. Until next time loves! ✌🏽
