Folded Paper Morpho Butterfly - Easy Nature Craft for Kids
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About This Project
Brighten your day with these beautiful paper Blue Morpho Butterflies! They're super easy to make with common crafty items like paper, crayons, markers, and pipe cleaners. You can make this butterfly with just about anything: plain white paper, colorful construction paper, or tissue paper. While the directions show you how to make your butterfly look like a blue morpho, you can use any color you like—there's a lot of butterflies in the world to inspire your creativity!
- Nature Craft Projects
- Spring Activities
- Butterfly Studies
- Paper Folding Crafts
- Easy Kids Projects
Steps
Cut your paper into a square
The easiest way to cut a rectangular piece of paper into a square is to fold one corner down until it meets the other side. Then, trim off the extra.
Cut into rectangles
Cut the square into two rectangles. One will become your top wings. The second will be the bottom.
Fold the bottom wings
Take one rectangle and accordian fold it from the short side like the piece on the right. This will become your bottom wings.
Make the top wings
To make the top wings, fold the second strip in half lengthwise (see the left image) and open back up. Fold the corners to the center fold (like you're making a paper airplane). Cut off the corners. Next fold it like an accordion along the long edge--use the same size folds as the other strip.
Color your wings
Open your strips of paper and flatten them out. If you're using white paper, use crayons or markers to make the butterfly blue and add a black stripe along the edges as shown. Tissue paper and construction paper butterflies just need the black stripe. Bonus: add red dots along the stripe with glitter glue! If you use glue, you'll need to give the paper time to dry before moving on the next step.
Assemble your butterfly
Cut the pipecleaner in half. Fold the butterfly back up along the creases you made. Fold each strip in half. Place the two folded parts of the butterfly together as shown. Wrap one half of the pipe cleaner around the two wing pieces. This will make the butterfly body.
Add the antennae
Take the second half of the pipe cleaner and slip it under the loop of the first half. Bend in half and twist a couple times to secure. Curl the ends into a loop--this is the butterflies antenna.
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