DIY Butterfly Containers!

I recently posted a collection of butterfly ideas.  Here is the DIY directions for the two butterfly containers.  They are really easy.  You just need foam, felt, google eyes, pipe cleaners and hot glue!

We'll start out with the see through butterfly.  This is the easiest!

First, you need some sort of see through container.  I'm not sure what this container was actually used for, but I think pasta containers would work great.  I'm sure they have something at the dollar store.

 

Next I cut out a strip of black foam to cover the back of the butterfly.  I did this, so the wings wouldn't show through and so it would look like the butterfly's body.  Pick whatever color you would like.

Next, create your wings out of foam.  I am not a perfectionist when it comes to creating these animals.  I hand cut every piece.  I did fold the foam in half, so that the butterfly is actually symmetrical.  Other than that, it is a free form butterfly! 

 

Here are all the wings laid out.  I laid the butterfly body down on top to make sure that it was about like I wanted.

Next, I hot glued the butterfly wings to the back of the container.  I glued the bottom wings first and layered the top ones last.  Be sure to tilt your wings, so they really look like a butterfly.

The last touches are adding the google eyes to the front of the container and pipe cleaners to the back.  I cut a pipe cleaner in half and twisted it around my finger.  Hot glue the eyes and antenna on and you are done!

The next butterfly is a little more involved, but still really easy.

I started out with a plastic spaghetti jar and cut a piece of felt to glue around the jar.  I chose felt, because it will be very durable with children and it is really easy to glue on the jar.

 

When you are gluing, glue only a very small portion of the felt at a time.  This will allow you to really pull the felt tight across the butterfly.  You can see the ridges in the spaghetti jar, which look like the ridges on a real butterfly's body. 

Your material may gather a little at the top, but I think it adds character :)

To make the butterfly's head, I hot glued some felt around the spaghetti jar top.  I hot glued it all the way around the top.

Then, for the interesting part.  I did not have any traditional stuffing, so I scrunched up a bunch of paper towels and squished on top of the jar lid.

Closing the head was kind of like wrapping a present.  I squished all the paper towels around until it looked "head-like".  Then I folded the felt like a present over the back of the head.  I hot glued and held my finger there until the hot glue dried.

Here is the completed head.  I hot glued antenna in the creases on the top of the head.  Hot glued google eyes and a foam mouth to the front.  You are done with the head.

Next, create your wings.  As I said before, I don't measure anything out.  You can certainly do this, but I just fold the foam in half and cut.  Make any pattern you want on the butterflies wings.  Hot glue the pieces down and be sure to lay your butterfly body down to test it, before hot gluing on the wings.

I hot glue the wings on the back of the container, gluing the bottom wings first.  The hot glue takes a little longer to adhere to the felt, so be sure to really hold it there until the glue dries.

Your body and head are complete!  The butterfly's head will screw on and off for fine motor practice.  The felt really does make it pretty durable.  I had my 4 year old daughter play with it for about an hour and it was still intact.  The parts that will most easily be pulled off are the antenna, google eyes, and the wings.  All can easily be reattached.

You could make the wings out of felt on your butterfly and it would be even more kids friendly.  If you do , I would love to hear about it! 

 As you can tell, I love making things out of containers and junk!  If you have something that you would like me to try and attempt, please let me know!  I love the challenge of figuring out how to make it work.  I LOVE all requests!

 

I just discovered Teach Junkie and linked up!