Butterfly on a stick

 "Do you know? God paints every color on a butterfly with His finger."

                                                                                                         (The Ultimate Gift; 2006) 

I've always liked butterflies - their colors and patterns on their wings have always amazed me. As a child, I could sit for hours in the garden and watch them as they drink flower nectar. I used to take caterpillars home to watch them growing and to learn what butterfly would emerge from the chrysalis. After some time, I learned their names thanks to a guide my grandma had gave me. But I was really sad when I found out that some species live only for a few hours is an adult form. The beauty is so faint ... Therefore, in today's tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a decoration - a butterfly, which will live longer and will be pleasing to the eye every day.

difficulty: medium
estimated time: 2 hours

You need:

• a piece of cardboard from an old box
• a piece of construction paper or other stiff paper
• polymer clay
• wooden skewer
• pencil or black marker
• spring from an old pen
• a piece of wire
• a pot of water
• glues: white glue and silicone
• pain and paintbrush
• scissors or paper knife

Tutorial steps:

1.  Fold the construction paper in a half and draw two of butterfly’s wings near the folded edge. 

2. Cut out the shape together with the opposite side of paper, that will make the wings symmetrical.

3. Copy the shape on the piece of cardboard and cut it out.

4. Paint the wings, but please, be more creative than me ;). Leave them to dry or dry it with a hair-dryer. You can also contour the wings with the black marker to hide the sharp edges.

5. While you’re waiting for the paint to dry, warm a piece of black polymer clay in your hands. Form a small ball and a stick.  Bend the piece of wire in half and put it in the ball. Form two small white balls and even smaller black ones and make eyes for the butterfly. You can form them to give it some emotion.

6.   Join the head and the body together and boil the water.

7. Put the butterfly’s body to the water and boil it for 10 minutes. After that you can smear it with cooking oil to make the colors more intense.

8.  In the centre of the wings put some white glue and stick the body to them. Leave it to dry.

9. Dip the blunt end of the skewer in the silicone glue and put the spring on it, so that it’s half above the skewer. Leave it to dry.

10. When the both glues have dried, puncture the cardboard in the centre underneath to make a small hole. Find the end of the string and unbend it a little bit. Screw the string in the hole you made. Your butterfly is ready to fly!

Downloadables:

- Printable version (pdf)

Next week: A May Crate for Mum