Paper Butterfly Craft Template- with Moving Wings

Making a Paper Butterfly Craft that moves its' wings

My daughter brought this DIY Paper Butterfly Craft idea to me for a butterfly themed birthday party for her daughter (my grand!). Nana loves to have a craft when the grands come so this was a great help. This birthday theme was featured on the post you can find by clicking this link. 

Want to watch a video of this craft? Here it is!

The video is found on YouTube at this link: YouTube DIY Paper Butterfly Craft Template with Moving Wings Video!! Check it out. The mechanism is pretty cool!

I hadn’t filmed the directions for making this craft, so it’s not included in the butterfly birthday post. But NOW it can be!! You use straws to make the wings flap and move and I am still enamored with the whole idea. The grands loved making it as well.

How do you make a butterfly with moving wings?

This DIY Paper Butterfly Craft with a free template is so easy and yet so amazing. The mechanics of this craft are simple, a set of two straws with one sliding inside the other. But the results are cool- with the child able to flap the butterfly wings as they move it through the air.

Butterfly craft

Print the free DIY Paper Butterfly Craft Template out on cardstock or 90 lb. paper (I used white but colored paper would work OK too). You may have to slightly decrease the size of the original as you print because I drew it almost edge to edge on the paper. Sorry about that.

Here is the link for the Free Butterfly Template

Decorate the butterfly wings with colored markers, colored pencils, or crayons. I only decorated the top of the butterfly wings, but you could decorate both sides of the paper if you want.

Butterfly wings are symmetrical, the same pattern on each wing, but let the kids color them however they want!!

I just thought about the possibility of adding BLING (like stick on gems) or glitter if you want (glitter is such a mess, but so pretty)!

Butterfly paper cut out

When the grands are done decorating, have them cut out the butterfly on the solid outside line. Do NOT cut on the dotted lines.

Fold the wings in half on the center dotted line, with the printed words in the middle.

Then fold the wings back on the outside dotted lines.

This creates an accordion fold in the butterfly and a “body” underneath the wings.

Paper butterfly

Staple the body together on the folds underneath the wings. This holds it together. You could glue it together if you prefer.

Using a hole punch, punch a hole in the butterfly towards the head.

Pull a pipe cleaner through the hole and twist the two ends together so it won’t come out. These pipe cleaner ends make the antennas. Clip them to the length you like.

Butterfly paper craft

The mechanics of the butterfly are achieved with two drinking straws, one larger in diameter and one smaller in diameter. The smaller straw must fit inside the larger straw.

Using some scissors, cut, and split the larger drinking straw in half lengthwise for about 4 inches down from one end.

Cut the straw off about 2 ½ inches shorter than the small straw (on the end that is not split).

Then cut and split the smaller drinking straw lengthwise for about 1 to 1 ½ inches down from one end. If your smaller straw is a bendable one, then cut down from the other end of the straw.

Open the split in the small straw, slide it over the body of the butterfly on the underside of the butterfly. Tape this in place using packing tape, placing tape over the end of the straw on each side of the butterfly body.

Tip: I tried regular tape and it just wasn’t strong enough to hold.

Then slide the larger drinking straw over the smaller straw with the split ends towards the butterfly.

Tape one end of the split straw to the underside of one of the butterfly wings at least halfway across the wings (not right next to the body). Do the same thing on the other wing as well. Again, use packing tape.

Tip: Only tape about 1 inch of the end of the straw to the wing so it can flex better for the next step of flapping the wings!

Butterfly with moving wings

To make the butterfly wings “flap”, just hold the smaller straw in one hand and the larger in the other. Slide the larger straw up and down over the smaller one. The wings go up and down and “flap”, you have a butterfly with moving wings!

Tip: You may need to fold the larger straws a bit so they will bend and flap correctly.

Easy butterfly craft activities

What other bugs could you make with a bit of imagination? Why not try a ladybug or a dragonfly for example? You will have to adapt the template, but that will challenge your grands to think through how that can be done! So cool.

For more butterfly craft ideas check out these posts on Welcome To Nanas! I think I see a lot of butterfly ideas on here! 

More Butterfly craft ideas

Hey, I just thought of another way to use this DIY Paper Butterfly Craft Template. You could make a number of these butterflies but instead of attaching straws, you could hang them from the ceiling (from the body section) for decorations. Or you could tie them together on a string tied in the same hole as the antenna go through and make a butterfly garland! 

Here is the link to that Free Butterfly Template again! For more fun butterfly themed activities, check out the list below:

• Butterfly Birthday Party Theme Ideas
• Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft
• Paper Butterfly Cupcake Toppers
• DIY Butterfly Wings Photo Backdrop
• Decorated Butterfly Pretzel Cookies

Enjoy!

If you try this craft, let me know! Go ahead and leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo with #WelcometoNanas wherever you post.

Come join the fun at www.WelcomeToNanas.com

Supplies for the DIY Paper Butterfly Craft

• Cardstock paper or 90 lb paper (I used white)
• DIY Paper Butterfly Craft Template (link to copy)
• Colored markers, colored pencils or crayons
• Stick on gems or glitter (optional)
• Pipe cleaner
• Larger diameter drinking straw
• Regular diameter drinking straw
• Packing tape
• From your supplies- need:
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Hole punch