Suncatcher Butterflies

Yesterday we started our butterflies by colouring coffee filters the same way you would to make flowers. It will be fun to make these some day with clothespins, but while I was going through a box of craft supplies I found our suncatcher kit and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the butterflies. The kit came with clear window suction cups and would be perfect for holding up the butterflies.

You need coffee filters (one or two for each butterfly), washable markers (regular markers will work too), a spray bottle filled with water, pipe cleaners (the fuzzier, the better), and a dry surface to dry the coffee filters on.
Colour the coffee filters any way you want, then spray them with a few squirts of water (a little goes a long way and you don't want them to be drenched). Leave them out to dry (we let them dry overnight).

Bean traced her hand on a couple of the coffee filters, although the water washed them away.

 I made a primary colour and black one, so I could explain primary colours to Bean.

Then we gathered the supplies.

These are the pipe cleaners that Munchkin and Bean picked out.

Bean watched me fold one coffee filter before she decided she preferred to roll them. :)

Bend a pipe cleaner in half.

Put both rolled coffee filters in the middle, try to keep them centered so the butterflies are balanced.

Then twist the pipe cleaners a few times (slightly loose, you don't want it to be too tight around the coffee filters, since that might tear them).

Then twirl the pipe cleaners around your finger to give them antennae. 

Bean loves that part. :)

Pretty butterflies! Last part is to open their wings (spread out the coffee filters). :)

Munchkin helped me put them on the window. (The morning light does not do them justice. They are really pretty when the sunlight shines right on them.)

And because they aren't tied to the suction cups they can rearrange the butterflies however they want and move them to other windows too. 

It will be so fun to make more of these! And we will try out other critters too. :)

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