Our daughter brought home a butterfly photograph she had clipped from a calendar at school and wanted to make a costume for an event, so we gave it a whirl! Materials Wings & Antenna Headband Chenille sticks Pom-poms Paper bag Paints Sponge, paint brush etc. Felt Scissors Glue gun/glue Body Cardboard Pencil/eraser Glue gun/glue Felt Pom-poms Sewing marker or white pencil crayon (*Optional- handy for little ones) Attaching Wings Self-adhesive velcro (we sewed the velcro to the shirt just to assure it would stay, but this is optional) We always find these items helpful too: Smock Craft tray Directions Here was her inspiration: Cut open your bag (removing the bottom, the top where the handles were and the sides.) Ours happened to have a beautiful pattern on the outside so we used this as the underside of the wings. Don your smock. Place your bag parts into a craft tray and paint them however you would like. Our daughter used a sponge, making long strokes. Allow to dry overnight. If your bag was blank on the exterior, flip your pieces over and paint the other side. Allow to dry. We then prepared the body of the butterfly (an older child could draw the abdomen and the thorax) by sketching and then cutting the shape out of cardboard. Cutting cardboard can be difficult for young children so it may require some adult assistance. We suggest a good pair of scissors, cutting off excess pieces to make it more manageable, doing a rough cut and then a polishing off cut (rounding out sharp edges). We then placed the body on a piece of felt, traced around it with a white pencil crayon and then cut out the felt copy. We glued the felt to the cardboard body base and trimmed off any excess. We then glued pom-poms onto the felt, carefully pulling off all the spidery glue webs! Our son wanted to help so he drew the wing shape for the butterfly and cut it out. (We then flipped it over and traced the wing going the opposite way onto the other side of the paper.) The wings were then glued to the cardboard body. From your felt, cut out and glue any spots and stripes from you might like on your butterfly. Add any painted details. Allow to dry. Cut your velcro into two strips. We pulled it apart and stuck (followed by sewing) the one side of the velcro to a shirt and then stuck the other side to the cardboard. Our antenna were formed by taking two chenille sticks, folding them in half, twisting them around the headband and then gluing a pom-pom on each end. Allow to dry and pop it in your hair! Voila! Your butterfly is complete! Purpose Using a photograph as inspiration for creating. Celebrating various holidays. Developing one’s fine motor skills (cutting different materials to strengthen muscles and using different strategies for manipulating various tools) Safety Notes We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces. Use scissors and a glue gun with care and adult supervision. Small objects such as pom-poms can be a choking hazard, therefore keep out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years or those that tend to put things in their mouths. Please like & share: 3 Responses Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Name* Email* Website Comment Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.
