Gift Guide 
What You’ll Need
- Watercolor paper
- Scissors
- Watercolors or acrylic paints
- Chenille sticks
- Ribbon
From watercolor paper, cut out two oval shapes.
Creative
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Colorful Butterflies
A pretty craft to perk up any room of the house
When children make little butterflies, their hands, fingers, and eyes synchronize. It’s a fine-motor-skills celebration, packaged as pretty play.
Image Credit |
Craft samples by: Buff McAllister|Photos by Guy Cali Associates, Inc.
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Using watercolors or acrylic paints and water, decorate the ovals. Let them dry.
Accordion fold the ovals. Pinch them together in the middle. Wrap a chenille stick around the center and twist to form antennae and a body.
Add a ribbon hanger.
Extend the Fun
For younger kids: Tape several butterflies to a window sash, side by side, so they flutter in the breeze. Or make a mobile: Bind crisscrossed sticks with a figure eight of string, attach your butterflies to the four corners of the sticks, and hang your mobile from a hook in the ceiling, or outdoors from a tree with outstretched branches.
For older kids: Study the colors of real butterflies, like the monarch, the Luna moth, and the painted lady (you’re a lepidopterist!) and paint your butterfly wings accordingly. When the weather warms up, plant flowers that attract these delicate creatures, and see who flutters by! Bonus project: Memorize the French word for butterfly—papillon—and look up the dog of the same name. You’ll see how he got his name. (Hint: Look at his ears.)
Craft by Jennifer K. Day, text by Mary Sears
