Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft | Welcome To Nana's

A colorful Coffee Filter Butterfly with a black pipe cleaner for antenna.

Butterfly Tie-Dye Fun

Ready for some summer butterfly fun? The coffee filter butterfly craft pulls out that fun tie-dye craziness in you. Aren’t they colorful and beautiful?

This is a super easy, low cost and fast craft that is so perfect for a Sunday School or birthday party activity with lots of littles. But every age grand loved making one so even the older kids wanted to make one.

A child holding up a coffee filter colored with markers.

Collect up those craft supplies!

I’ve enjoyed collecting up supplies for crafts (OK, so that is not an area of minimalism for me) and the colorful water based markers are a favorite. For this activity, the markers have to be water based and the more colorful the better!!

Papa's coffee filters

The grands and I grabbed some of Papa’s coffee filters and headed downstairs for some butterfly fun.

Each person needs two coffee filters to make a Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft. Place one coffee filter on top of the other and the pattern will then be similar on each filter when you are done. You know, butterfly wings are mirror images!

Tip: I got out cake pans and cookie sheets to put under this craft so it didn’t go all over the place when we got it wet or the markers didn’t leak onto the table surface.

A child using a spray bottle to spray over her coffee filter colored with markers.

Color your design

Color a design on your filter with the water based markers. The older grands colored designs that radiated out of the center of the coffee filter and were symmetrical designs. The younger grands just colored all over the filter. Both worked well.

It is good to color and cover the filters with bright colors but leave a little white space between each color so the colors can run and blend. If there is too much white space or if you use pastel colored markers the filters will be pale in color. That is pretty but isn’t the same bright tie dye effect that you may be hoping for. These are so fast and easy the kids may want to make more than one.

Colorful coffee filters drying after being sprayed with water to bleed the colors.

Spray on some water, watch the magic happen

A spray bottle of water worked really well to spray water onto the filters and cause the water based markers to run and blend. Wet the filter but don’t douse it or the colors will not just run but puddle and mix into one dull color across the whole filter.

The filters allow the colors to blend so nicely. This is a bit of science which is intriguing and just so pretty.

Let the filters sit and dry. When I set them in the sun it didn’t take very long. That’s a good time to have a snack and visit a bit or play a game!

Once dry, separate the two filters. Isn’t it cool how they are very similar looking in the design? I love the colors!!

A colorful coffee filter folding back and forth like a fan.

Fold the wings

Fold each filter with an accordian fold, back and forth in about a ½ inch width.

Place one filter on top of the other and twist a pipe cleaner around the center. We used a black pipe cleaner but they can be any color you want.

Gently pull each of the four sections of the wings open. Wow, so pretty.

Make a twist on the end of each pipe cleaner to look like antennae.

Two colorful folded coffee filters on either side of a black pipe cleaner.

Look at the joy on that face!! Doesn’t it make you want to go and make a Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft right now? Go for it!!

I owe my daughter a shout out for this craft idea. We made them at a Butterfly Birthday Party which will be featured in another post. She had great ideas and the kids had so much fun.