Symmetrical Butterflies

Here is a fun and easy craft that always has beautiful results:

Start with a piece of construction paper. Fold it in half as if you were going to make a card. Crease the center line and open it back up.

On one side of the center crease, dribble paint splotches and dots. Don't use too much, since this project takes a while to dry anyway. It doesn't matter how many colours you use, where you put the paint, or if the dots aren't in a pattern. Whatever your kids come up with is perfect.

Here is where we were at the end of our paint splotching.

Now fold the paper back in half, and gently press your hands over it. The more tapping, rubbing, and smooshing you do, the more the paint with blend together.

Open the paper back up and see what your painting turned into! (I love the look of wonder on his face, don't you?)

Set this somewhere where it won't be disturbed until it is fully dry. It will take a long time. We made the craft to this point, went out and did all my errands, (about 2 1/2 hours) came home, and then finished it up.

Next we worked on our butterfly's face. A coloured Popsicle stick formed his body, and we added two tiny googly-eyes and a happy smile.

Then we took a small piece of pipe cleaner, bent it into an antenna shape, and glued it to the back of his head. (for this we needed to use the glue-gun to make it stay)

Now go back to your painting, which is fully dry. Fold it back in half, then sketch out the shape of a butterfly wing on the folded side. Cut following your line, and open the paper back up. Now you have beautiful (and symmetrical!) butterfly wings!

Glue on the body, and you are done and ready to play with it or display it on your fridge. You can really see in this picture where the paint was 'smooshed' the most. The picture isn't blurry or out of focus, the paint at the center of the butterfly was just squished together more. Where you see polka-dots on the wings, the paint was only lightly tapped down.