Last year when lockdown started, in the midst of the fear and all the adjustments of taking care of my daughter and working from home, I felt like I was getting back the time I had lost with her while I was away at work for the first 2 years of her life.  It was such a blur, but an awesome blur, full of snacks, dancing, resetting naptime routines, attempting to potty train, making music, and of course, crafting.  A tissue paper butterfly was one of the first crafts I made with my daughter (we ripped up tissue paper and then glued it on the wings made out of paper), but kicked it up a notch this year (haha)!  By cutting/punching out shapes in the paper and then laying the tissue paper underneath, we tried to recreate the beautiful, transparent wings of a butterfly.  It resulted in what I’ve dubbed a “light catcher butterfly!”

Materials

• Paper (construction or cardstock)
• Colored tissue paper
• Marker
• Scissors
• Glue
• Hole Punch (optional)

Directions

1. Fold a piece of paper in half.

2. Draw the outline of a top and bottom butterfly wing.

3. Cut the wings out but don’t unfold the paper yet.

4. While the paper is still folded, use different hole punches to punch different shapes in the wings (toddlers will need adult supervision to make sure their little fingers don’t get hurt).  You can also just use scissors to cut out shapes (like you would a paper snowflake).

5. Open up the butterfly wings and glue some tissue paper to the back.  You can use the same color of different colors for the top and bottom wings.  We used a bottle of glue, but I think a glue stick would work better for this craft!

6. Cut the excess tissue paper around the edges of the wings.

7. While the wings are drying, draw the butterfly head and body on a piece of paper.  Cut them out and add an antennae.

8. Glue the body onto the wings.

9. Hang your butterfly up on the wall, or even better yet, the window, for all to see (and for the light shine through)!

Here’s a bonus picture of my daughter trying to fly like our butterflies, haha!

On another note, we are nearing the end of the school year, and WHAT A YEAR IT HAS BEEN.  I am so thankful for my job and so grateful for my students.  I am also very, very, very excited for the summer… SO MANY CRAFTS AND MUSIC STUFF I HAVE PLANNED!  I can’t wait!

Happy crafting and music making!

– Hannah