DIY Life

Welcome to the first edition of Kiddie Crafts. DIY'ers are bound to have crafty kids. It's in the blood. Still, even the most inventive crafters can get stuck thinking of creative ways to entertain their children. Each week I'll highlight a kids craft, taking you through step by step instructions. This week, in the spirit of Valentine's day, we've made butterflies with heart shaped wings.

This is a great little project for families with children or various ages. Your younger children will need assistance, while the older ones can manage cutting and assembly on their own, taking time to design and paint the butterfly body exactly how they want it. Finally, little ones will run around the house flying their butterfly, while their older siblings might make up a puppet show.

Crafting these butterflies is simple. Here's what you'll need:

1. Toilet paper roll
2. Construction paper, card stock or craft paper
3. Paints, pens, glitter or other decorations of choice
4. Scissors
5. Glue
   
6. Pipe cleaners
7. Googly eyes or pom-poms
8. chopstick (optional)

Let the children get involved in choosing pens and paints. They might want to add stickers or other little embellishments too. It's fun for them to personalize it. After the break I'll explain the step-by-step instructions. Check out the gallery for helpful pictures along the way.






Making your butterfly

1. Decorate the butterfly body (toilet paper roll)
   Let you child decorate the butterfly body. They may want to color or paint it, and add glitter, stickers or pom-poms for extra flair.
   
   
2. Spread out newspaper
   Cover the workspace in newspaper so that you doing get paint on it.
   
   
3. Fold paper or card-stock in half
   
   
4. Draw a heart
   Draw free-hand or use a heart shaped cookie cutter as your guide. Leave a band of paper where the two hearts attach.
   
   
5. Cut out the heart
   If your little one is comfortable with scissors, let them do the cutting. Otherwise, cut the hearts out for them.
   
   
6. Glue the heart to the back of the toilet paper roll
   Dab glue along the paper band area. Put the toilet paper roll on top and press together firmly. Let it dry.
   
   
7. Cut the pipe cleaner
   Cut the size of antenna you want, curl up the ends for a whimsical look.
   
   
8. Attach the pipe cleaner as antennas
   The craft glue wasn't as successful on this step. We ended up re-enforcing ours with tape.
   
   
9. Add googly eyes or pom-poms
   Give the butterfly a little personality by adding eyes and other facial features.
   

Once you've made the butterfly you can either use it as a finger puppet or attach a stick to the bottom. We used chopsticks, but a pencil or craft stick would work just as well. The children will have a great time waving them around, watching the wings flap.

Our boys are pretty rough, flying their new friends around the house. You'll want to make sure the glue is completely dry before playing with them, but they may still need a bit of tape or stronger glue to keep things in place long term.

They don't take long to create, but you'll get mileage out of them afterward. Our boys are busy making up a puppet show with their butterfly crafts.

If you're children want to make a craft, but you're house is over-run with recycled creations, then you could write a little message on the back and give them as give Valentine cards. The last picture in the gallery shows how these can be used in plants of floral bouquets. A great addition to Grandma's Valentine flowers!