Butterfly Suncatchers

This recycled craft is a simple and clever way to teach children about primary and secondary colors while recycling empty paper tubes. I allowed the children to decorate the craft sticks and choose what colored wings they wanted on their butterflies. But I used a glue gun to make all the wings without the kids help so they wouldn’t burn themselves. I found this project on the hellowonderful web site.

You Will Need:

Cardboard Toilet Paper and Paper Towel Tubes
Colored Cellophane
Chenille Stems
Jumbo Craft Sticks
Hot Glue Gun
Scissors
Sharpie Markers

What to Do:

1. Cut a cardboard paper roll tube into approximate one inch strips. You will need 4 per butterfly.

2. Shape the into tear drop shapes somewhat to create the wings. Use one as a template and trace with a pen or marker onto a colored gel filter of your choice. Once you have that shape, use that a a template to cut out several more colored wings. Note we cut our gel filters a bit wider so they would be easier to glue onto the paper tube wings.

3. Use hot glue to attach the gel filter to the paper tube wings and trim off excess with scissors.

4. Use a hot glue gun to attach the wings to a craft stick.

5. Take two small strips of chenille stems, curl them in to create antennas and glue to the top o fhte popsicke stick.

6. Use markers to draw a face on the butterflies if you want to.

References:

HelloWonderful

Photos by Stephanie Felzenberg