These adorable paper dragonflies are simple and easy to make, perfect for a sunny summers day with the kids!
What you’ll need
Coloured paper
Scissors
Double sided tape / glue
Googly eyes
How to make our paper dragonflies
Cut out multiple strips of paper making sure each one is thinner and shorter than the last until you have a selection of strips similar to the ones in the picture above.
Take your largest strip and add glue or tape to one and the roll it around and attach it to the other end to form a circular tube. Repeat this step with all of your other strips. With the smallest strip you can flatten it slightly to create a long tail.
Stick all of the tubes together in descending order of size to create the body of the dragonfly.
Next you’ll need to cut out the shapes of your wings. To do this we folded a piece of paper in half then drew a wing from the fold and then opened it out to reveal our double wing shape.
Once you have your two wing shapes stick them together in a cross and then onto the body of the dragonfly
Finish off your adorable paper dragonflies by adding two Googly eyes and any optional facial features!
With all the lovely sunshine that we have been having here in the UK we haven’t really been crafting much this week. We have however had a wonderful weekend visiting a local beach and playing in the garden.
One thing we noticed whilst playing in the garden is that the butterfly’s are back! It was so lovely to see them and a good sign that summer is on its way – we can’t wait! So for today’s craft we wanted to share this super cute toilet roll butterfly craft. Aren’t they just lovely? So bright and beautiful!
Heres what we used
Coloured paints and paintbrush
Pipe cleaner
Coloured card
Googly eyes
Toilet roll
Scissors
Glue (we used a glue gun but you could always PVA and peg!)
How to make our toilet roll butterfly craft
Start by taking your empty toilet rolls and coating them inside out in the chosen colour of paint.
Once dry, you will need to cut the rolls into four equal rings. Our rings are each 1/4 of a roll.
Now to make the butterfly’s body! Take a pipe cleaner and cut it in half. Line the two pieces up and begin twisting them together at one end leaving only a small section untwisted at the top for the antennae. Cut out a circle for the butterfly’s face and add details such as the googly eyes, a mouth and some rosy cheeks. Then glue the face onto the pipe cleaner just below the base of the antennae.
Take each of your toilet roll rings and pinch them at opposite ends to make the shape of the wings. Glue one of your upper wings to a lower wing at the point. Repeat this with the other two wings. Then glue both sides of wings together with the butterfly’s body in the middle (if using PVA you may need to peg the pieces together whist drying). Once dry your cute little toilet roll butterfly craft is finished!
Following my last post with the popsicle stick bumble bees I wanted to share these cute little popsicle stick dragonflies with you all. They’re really similar to the bees and just as simple to make. Dragonflies are so beautiful, we see some really lovely brightly coloured ones around here during the warmer months and the beautiful colours are what make these little guys such a great craft! My little boy loved combining all the different colours to create his beautiful dragonflies – Don’t they look adorable? Each dragonfly turns out unique which makes it great as a group craft too.
Here’s what we used
Coloured (or painted) popsicle sticks
Pipe cleaner
Pom poms
Googly eyes
Scissors
Glue
How to make our popsicle stick dragonflies.
Take two popsicle sticks and glue them into a flattened X shape to make the wings. Take a third stick and glue it in the middle of your x shape as you can see above, this makes the dragonflies body.
Coat the body of the dragonfly in glue and stick the pom poms along it using a larger one for the head. Leave your pom poms to dry in place.
Take a length of pipe cleaner and twist it equally just behind the head piece on you Popsicle stick body. Finish your dragonfly by adding two googly eyes and optionally any decoration on the wings!
I’m absolutely buzzing to share today’s craft with you! Okay, that was a terrible joke but aren’t these little yarn wrapped bumble bees just the cutest? We had loads of fun making these little guys and it was a great way to talk to my son about how important bees are for out eco system. These little guys are so sweet and easy to make which makes them perfect for at home and for preschools too.
Here’s what we used:
Toilet roll
White paper
Eye stickers
Black paint
Yellow/orange wool
Scissors
Glue/tape
Take your toilet roll and cover it in black paint before putting it aside to dry.
Take your white paper and cut out two wing shapes and fold a small tab at the bottom of each one. Once your Tp roll is dry use these tabs to glue your wings about 1/3 of the way up your Tp roll.
On the opposite side, make a small snip at the back of your TP roll. Push one end of your wool down into this snip and secure it with fast drying glue or tape.
Wrap your yarn upwards along your bumble bee and stop about 2cm away from the end. Then, wrap your wool back down towards your starting end and secure the loose end by pushing it through the slit and again using tape or glue.
Finish off your adorable little bumble bee by sticking on two eyes. Doesn’t he look great?
