This weekend we finally got around to doing a craft I have been thinking about all Summer. It turned out to be one of the prettiest things we have made. I was also impressed that for once all three of the girls wanted to do this craft. Usually, I set things up only for one or all of them to decide they don’t want to do my idea they want to do something else entirely. This time all three loved making butterflies and did this for a couple of hours.
I have been thinking about this idea for a long time. I was inspired by the lovely Stained Glass crafts on Happy Hooligans where she uses sharpies to make a beautiful vivid stained glass effect. I thought this would work great to make the wings on a butterfly.
Materials You Will Need To Make Butterfly Sun Catchers
- acetate
- pipe cleaners
- beads
- sharpies
I made the girls a butterfly-shaped template. They used this to cut out a butterfly in acetate. Then we wrapped the black pipe cleaners around the middle, leaving to feelers at the top. We added two beads to the ends of the feelers. Then the girls decorated the wings with sharpies. We needed to protect the table as the permanent markers would stain the table.
The finished butterflies look really pretty and the girls were very proud of their creations.
The good thing is you can totally make your own designs. It can be as simple or complicated as you want.
We used the pictures we took at the Butterfly Farm to make realistic butterflies.
The finished butterflies are really vibrant and colourful. The girls loved playing with them.
We thought they looked lovely displayed on a window with a bit of tape.
The brighter colours showed up better than lighter ones.
They also looked lovely in the garden. This would be a pretty decoration for a party.
What a lovely surprise to find these in your garden.
We used another small piece of pipe cleaner to tie the butterflies onto the stems of plants in the garden.
The colours really glowed in the sunshine.
We all loved the way the sun shone through the translucent wings and left beautiful coloured shadows.
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