10 Creative Butterfly Crafts for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Kids

Making various crafts together as a family is an amazing way to spend quality family time when everybody is at home! Crafts also encourage children to get creative and imaginative. One of the easiest and best ways to encourage children to get creative is through butterfly crafts! Moreover, these would only require inexpensive materials that you can easily find at home! Whether you are looking for a summer or spring craft idea or are teaching kids more about insects, these ideas are an amazing way to incorporate some fine motor practice, imagination, and creativity!

Cute Butterfly Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers

The mere sight of little colourful butterflies gets children very excited! But no matter how much he/she runs after it to try and touch it, they may end up getting sad. So why not make your own butterflies at home? Not living and breathing ones but craft butterflies using the materials readily available at home. Not only will children enjoy making it, but they are also going to have fun playing with it! Here are some amazing butterfly activities and crafts that are perfect for preschoolers and toddlers.

1. Leaves Butterfly Craft

This easy butterfly craft for children does not involve scissors or a knife, making it completely safe for your preschooler!

What You Will Need

• White paper
• Simple oval-shaped leaves
• A hairpin
• Glue
• Black sketch pen

Procedure 

• The hairpin must be used as the body of the butterfly. Using the white glue, stick four leaves around the hairpin. The leaves represent the butterfly’s wings.
• Stick this butterfly on the white paper.
• Draw limbs and antennae using the black sketch pen.
• To make it more colorful, you can help the toddler paste a background around the butterfly or add color.

2. Hand Print Butterfly

The handprint butterfly is one of the easiest and most colorful craft ideas for children!

What You Will Need

• Non-toxic poster paint set
• White chart paper
• Sketch pens
• Large color palette

Procedure

• Pour the paint into the color palette.
• Let the toddler smear her entire palm with her favorite colors.
• Print a little hand impression on the white chart. The toddler can print two for each wing using different colors.
• The central body of the handprint butterfly can be drawn using sketch pens.

3. Cloth Clips Butterfly

The wiggle eyes in this butterfly craft idea make it more alive and fun!

What You Will Need

• Chart paper
• Colorful cloth pins
• Round-tip scissors
• Sketch pens
• Woolen strand
• Glue
• Small wiggle eyes

Procedure 

• Draw and color the outline of the wings of a butterfly on the chart paper.
• Cut the wings out using round-tip scissors.
• Stick the colorful wings to the cloth clips.
• Use glue to paste the wiggle eyes on the colorful clip and attach the wool strand at the front for the antennae.

4. Pencil Butterfly

For this craft idea, the toddler can use pencils of various colors to make it more colorful and fun!

What You Will Need 

• Paintbrush
• Water paints
• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Round-tip scissors
• Glue
• Wiggle eyes

Procedure

• Cut out the outline of a butterfly after drawing it on the cardboard.
• To resemble the body, fold the middle part of the butterfly.
• At the center, mark a point using a pencil and make two slits on either side of the point.
• Make a groove by gently cutting the section between the slits that will hold the pencil.
• Use watercolors to color the cardboard.
• Once the paint dries, a pencil can be passed through the groove.
• Additionally, to complete the craft, paste wiggle eyes at the top of the pencil.

5. Butterfly Life Cycle

This craft shows the metamorphosis or life cycle of the butterfly. This is an amazing way to help children understand the life cycle of a butterfly.

Source: Pinterest

What You Will Need 

• Chart paper (different colors)
• Paper plate
• Sketch pens
• Cotton balls
• Acrylic paints (non-toxic)
• Round-tip scissors
• Glue
• Strands of wool

Procedure

• Take a chart paper and draw a circle. Divide the circle into four parts or quadrants.
• Label the first left quadrant as “Eggs”. The top right quadrant must be labeled as “caterpillar”. “Chrysalis” at the bottom right corner and “butterfly” at the bottom left corner.
• Let the toddler paint the paper plate with the color of his/her choice. Cut out the circle from the chart and stick it to the paper plate, at the center.
• From the leftover chart, draw and cut out a leaf and color it green. Add a few more details to the leaf by drawing veins.
• Paste the leaf on the part labeled “eggs”. Take small cotton balls and stick these together on top of the leaf to represent the eggs.
• Next, take three strands of wool and twist these around. Stick these on the “caterpillar” quadrant.
• Take a brown strand of yarn and paste it horizontally under the ‘chrysalis’ section. Roll the piece of green chart paper and glue it below the brown strand.
• For the “butterfly” section, at the center of the quadrant, stick a strand of wool that has a loop. Through the loop, pass two pieces of chart paper. Press the loop and stick the strand together with the chart paper. Spread out the chart paper so that it looks like butterfly wings.
• Include some details and finishing touches with colors.
• The butterfly life cycle activity for children is finally complete!

Easy Butterfly Crafts For Kids

Check out these cute butterfly craft ideas that are not only fun but will also provide children opportunities to fine-tune their motor skills!

1. Marble Paper Plate Butterfly

These butterflies can be used as wall decorations, puppets, or can be used as special gift cards!

Source: Pinterest

What You Will Need

• Small paper plate (6”, thin)
• Scissors
• Shaving cream
• Paint
• Wooden craft sticks (or a piece of cardboard)
• Markers
• Glue
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaner

Procedure

• Begin by marbling the paper plates. This can be done using shaving cream and paint. On a surface, spray a layer of shaving cream and add drops of paint.
• Using a stick, swirl the paint around for the marble effect. Press the paper plate into the colored shaving cream. Use another piece of cardboard to scrape off the cream over the paper plate. Let the paper plate dry.
• Cut the plate in half and cut out each half in the shape of butterfly wings.
• Glue the wings to the sides of the craft stick.
• For the antennae, stick two short pipe cleaners at the top of the butterfly’s body.
• Finally, the butterfly can be decorated using markers!

2. Stained Glass Butterfly

Add some color to your windows with the stained glass tissue paper butterflies!

What You Will Need 

• Contact paper
• Butterfly template
• Black construction paper
• Tissue paper
• Twine or yarn
• Scissors

Procedure 

• On the black construction paper, trace the butterfly template and cut the outline out.
• Fold the butterfly in half. To create an outline, cut about half an inch from the outside following the outline of the butterfly shape. This is done to create the stained glass frame.
• Cut a piece of contact paper and it must be a little larger than the butterfly. Peel the backing off. Paste the butterfly frame on the sticky side of the contact paper.
• Cut small pieces of various colors of tissue paper and place it inside the outline, on the contact paper. Slightly overlap each tissue paper piece to not leave little spaces.
• Once space is completely filled, take another piece of contact paper and stick the sticky side on top of the butterfly.
• Cut out the excess contact paper around the outline.
• Finally, make a small hole on one of its wings. String the yarn through the hole and make a knot.

3. Pretty Paper Butterfly Garland

The Butterfly garland is perfect to brighten up a dull space or can be used for party decorations!

What You Will Need 

• Origami paper squares (15*15 cm)
• Pipe cleaner
• Yarn or thin ribbon

Procedure

• Fold the paper in half diagonally in order to form a triangle.
• From the center make zigzag folds in a thickness of about 1 cm, one half, and then the other.
• Repeat the same process with another piece of paper.
• Pinch the papers together at the center.
• Wrap and twist to secure with pipe cleaner at the center and bend the pipe cleaner so that it resembles the antennae.
• Open up the wings of the butterfly and flatten edges to keep the wings open.
• Your kid can make as many as they like in various colors.
• Through the center of the bodies of butterflies thread ribbon/twine to make a butterfly garland!

4. Toilet Paper Roll Butterfly

The toilet paper roll is one of the easiest craft ideas that a child could make!

What You Will Need

• Toilet Paper Roll
• Googly eyes
• Colored buttons
• Cardstocks of various colors
• Pipe cleaner
• Acrylic paint
• Black sharpie
• Small pom-poms

Procedure 

• Paint the paper roll with the children’s favorite color and let the paint dry.
• Fold a piece of cardstock in half to make the wings. You could either trace the template of a butterfly or draw your own wings. Cut out the wings.
• Paste the colorful buttons to the butterfly wings or let kids design the wings in any way they like. For this, you could use craft gems, pom poms, or even draw your own designs.
• Bend a pipe cleaner in the shape of antennae (V shape) and glue two pom-poms at the tips.
• Paste the antennae to the top of the paper roll on the inner part of the roll. Paste the googly eyes near the top of the butterfly’s body and sketch a mouth with a black marker.
• Finally, paste the wings to the paper roll, and this butterfly art and craft is complete!

5. Monarch Butterfly Craft

The best thing about this butterfly craft idea is that there is no drying time.

What You Will Need 

• Wooden pegs
• Colorful party streamers
• Markers
• Pipe cleaners
• Scissors

Procedure

• Start by cutting out the streamers. Patterns can also be made when doing this.
• Color the wooden pegs with colorful markers.
• Put the party streamers into the wooden pegs. The wooden pegs will have a slit in between and the streamers should be carefully slid into the slit and then scrunched.
• Use the pipe cleaners to make the antennae.

While making these crafts, you must be there to supervise children since they will be using scissors and glue. Also, let the toddler take the lead and exercise his imagination. Butterfly craft ideas are always fun for children of all ages. Butterflies are always fun to watch and turning them into a craft idea is even better!

Also Read:

Easy Origami Crafts for Children
Amazing Fall Crafts for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Children
Creative Apple Crafts & Activities for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Children