Materials:
- Coloured Felt- at least one sheet of each colour (brown, purple, pink, green, white, red)
- Scissors
- Chalk pen (or any pen that will mark felt)
- Optional (shape templates)
Steps:
- Lay out the materials and choose the colour you will use for the body of the butterfly. I chose purple (because that is my niece's favourite colour) and I made a pink one as well.
- Take the sheet of your chosen colour and fold it in half.
- Use the chalk pen (or marker) to draw a large "3" on the felt, making sure the top and bottom points on the left side of the "3" are lined up on the folded edge. Make the "3" as big as possible. See the picture below.
- Keeping the felt folded (you might want to pin it so it stays folded), cut along the line you just drew.
- Open out the folded felt that is left. You should have a shape that looks like butterfly wings. Put outline scraps aside - you may want to save them for future projects or discard them later.
- Lay the butterfly wings down and then line up the brown felt so it covers one of the wings.
- Draw a long oval shape for the body of the butterfly. See the picture below.
- Beside the oval, draw two antenna. Thin rectangles will do the trick if you aren't sure how to make the shape.
- Cut around the oval (this will make the body of the butterfly) and the two antenna shapes.
- Take a different coloured sheet of felt and fold it in half. Draw different sized basic shapes onto the felt using the chalk pen. I drew a large and a small square, various triangles, a wonky circle shape, a tear drop, diamonds and some squiggly lines. Make sure the biggest shapes you draw are still small enough to fit inside the butterfly wings that you cut out.
- Keep the felt folded and cut out the shapes. By having the felt folded, you will make two of each shape that you cut out and therefore the butterfly wings can appear symmetrical when decorated.
Cut felt while it's folded (doubled over) to get two of each shape. - Repeat steps 9 and10 with another sheet of felt (in a different colour).
- Lay the butterfly wings out and place the body and antenna on it. Use the coloured shapes to decorate the butterfly so each side looks the same. You will have more shapes than necessary, however you can layer the shapes (big square on the bottom, little square on top) or use only a few of the shapes each time.
- Fold the butterfly wings in half to fit the whole "puzzle" into a container or ziplock bag. Alternatively, you could put all the decorative shapes into a small bag and body shapes into another small bag, then place both bags into a container.
I hope those steps and photos helped. It was a fairly easy task. You don't have to use the colours that I prescribed; I only used what I had in my craft supplies. I made two butterflies so that both of my nieces could create their butterfly at the same time (no arguing!).
- You decorate one wing of the butterfly and ask your child to decorate the other wing with the same design.
- Give your child a smaller selection of shapes (only triangles or only squares or big squares and little triangles) and let them decorate. \
- Ask your child to sort the shapes by colour or shape before putting them away.
- Use the shapes to make some basic line patterns (e.g. square, triangle, circle, square, triangle, circle, OR blue, red, blue, red, blue, red).
- Ask your child to identify each shape or colour as they put it on the butterfly.
If you are looking for more inspiration to keep the kids busy with felt projects check out Living Life and Learning. Don't forget that there are heaps of activities you can try with the little ones in your life on my Pinterest board: Nephews and Nieces, Bits and Pieces
This is the world's most Awesome Aunty, Signing Off.
