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This clothespin butterfly craft is perfect for keeping kids busy, creative and enjoying the outdoors during the Summer holidays.
These cute and colourful butterflies are easy and cheap to make and can be clipped around the house or garden as cheerful decorations. They’re the perfect way to add a splash of colour and feelings of sunshine even when the weather isn’t cooperating!
I’m not usually a great fan of shopping but I’m like a kid in a sweetie shop when it comes to a good craft store! A recent visit to Hobbycraft had me going doo-lally over their gorgeous fat quarter bundles.
The photo doesn’t really do them justice but they had the cutest fabrics in their sewing section and I couldn’t resist temptation! The material in my bundle just cried out Summer and I knew it would be perfect for this fabric clothespin butterfly craft.
Fat quarter bundles are a great way to get a range of fabrics at a reasonable price. I got six different fabrics for just £7 and there’s enough in each piece to make a whopping 16 butterflies, totalling 96 fabric butterflies if I wanted!
I decided to make just twelve clothespin butterflies for now, two from each fabric and to save the rest of the material for another craft. The kids have dotted the finished butterflies around the garden and they really do look very summery.
Fabric Clothespin Butterfly Craft Supplies
- Clothespins
- Acrylic Paint
- Colourful Fabric
- Pipe Cleaners
- Glue
How To Make Fabric Clothespin Butterflies
Making Clothespin Butterflies is a great activity to encourage kids to get outside, enjoy nature and get creative too.
Why not start your crafting session off with some time looking at real butterflies? There are some fab books available to support kids learning and we just love butterfly kits that allow you to raise your own butterflies from caterpillars. What a fantastic way to learn!
Making butterflies out of clothespins and fabric is easy. You need to start by painting your clothespins with acrylic paint to make the butterfly’s body.
If you are going to decorate your garden with the fabric butterflies be aware that acrylics aren’t totally waterproof so if you want them to last a very long time outside you’ll need to varnish them too. We have just used the acrylic paint and fingers crossed they’ll last through the Summer. This butterfly craft is so easy it’ll be super quick to make some more in a few months time if we need to.
Next cut your fabric into butterfly wing shapes. We used pinking shears to help prevent fraying.
Finish your butterfly craft by adding the wings and antennae. Open the clothespins and put the fabric wings inside, you can add a dab of glue too if you want to but we didn’t bother.
To make the antennae simply cut a short length of pipecleaner and bend it into your desired shape. Stick it into place with a dab of glue.
We left our butterflies plain but younger children might like to draw a face on or add some googly eyes too.
Kids will love to clip their fabric clothespin butterflies to all sorts of things in the house or in the garden. We’ve used ours in the garden and have attached them to some plants, trellis and a garden arch and they look so bright and cheerful.
Inside the house you could clip your clothespin butterfly to a curtain or string lots of them onto a ribbon to make your own colourful butterfly bunting.
This easy clothespin butterfly craft is the perfect way for kids to think about nature and add a splash of colour inside and out. What fun!
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You can print the butterfly craft instructions below.
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