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Butterfly Flier Craft
Instructions and Templates

This is a very different tp roll craft than most.   It ends up "larger than life" (about one square foot) and is fun to play with.  If you look closely at the photo, you can see the tp roll in the center of the butterfly's body... that will give you a feel for the size of the finished craft.   Pull the yarn (takes two people) and the butterfly will fly between the players. 

To see a full sized photo of the completed craft, click here.  Close the photo window when done to return to this screen. 

butterfly craft
look how nice and green daddy's grass is!  *grin*

Although younger children (Age 2 thru 5) will have fun colouring the pieces (at least some of them), the craft is really more suited to Age 6+ as it's quite a bit longer of a project.  If you don't mind doing some of the crafting, by all means do it with younger children (I did!).  They'll get a kick out of the finished product.  However, children will need to be at least 6 to do it with limited adult help. 

Materials you will need for the butterfly are

bulleta tp roll (if you cover the tp roll in tinfoil instead of painting it, it will fly faster),
bulletabout 6 to 8 ft of wool (the smaller the kids, the shorter you should make it... you can always shorten it later if you need to),
bulletfishing line makes the butterfly fly faster than wool does, but I worry about letting my kids play with fishing line!  so I stuck to wool.
bulleta printer,
bulletglue,
bulletscissors,
bulletsomething to colour or paint with (I like paint for this project as there are a lot of pieces to colour and paint goes a bit quicker -- the one in the photo above is poster painted),
bulletsome poster board or cardboard (empty cereal boxes work great ... especially the Jumbo size boxes *grin*)
bulletand 5 pieces of paper .

INSTRUCTIONS:

bulletPrint out the template (5 pages).
 
bulletYou can either just have a one sided butterfly

or,

you can print two copies of each of the template pieces for a butterfly that looks nice from the front or the back.
bullet(it will take 10 pieces of paper and you can discard the second rectangle). 
bulletBigger kids will likely prefer this option, but be forewarned... it takes twice as long to do! 
bulletYou can make the entire craft one-sided and add the second side later if you still have energy.  This is my suggestion if you aren't sure the children will have the patience to complete the project on both sides.
 
bulletColour or paint the template pieces as appropriate.
 
bulletOnce dry, cut out the template pieces.   
 
bulletGlue the rectangular piece around the toilet paper tube.
  
bulletGlue the tp roll to the butterfly's body (you may want to add a bit of tape to reinforce).
  
bulletAssemble and glue one of the butterfly's wings and attach it to the body.
 
bulletPut your one winged butterfly (don't glue yet) on your cardboard and trace around (you don't need to be exact).  Cut out your cardboard.
 
bulletPut your cardboard cutout down on more cardboard and trace a second piece (this is going to help you keep your wings symmetrical.
 
bulletGlue one piece of cardboard to your one winged butterfly. 
 
bulletNow glue your second wing template pieces to the other piece of cardboard.
 
bulletGlue your second wing onto the butterfly.
 
bulletTape down the seam of the cardboard for extra support. 
 
bulletGlue your second set of template pieces to the back of the cardboard if you choose to make a two sided butterfly.
 
bulletOnce dry, trim any bits of cardboard that are showing.
 
bulletOPTIONAL:  You can cut out 6 thin strips of paper and glue them to the tp roll as legs and 2 strips glued to the head as antenna if you want to.
 
bulletFold your wool in half and tie so you have a big loop.  Put the loop through the tp roll.  Have one player hold each end of the loop.  Person A should hold hands together while Person B stretches their arms (and the wool) wide apart.  This will force the butterfly to fly to the other end of the yarn.  Now switch -- Person A stretch while Person B holds hands together.
 
bulletYou can hang your butterfly up from the ceiling when you aren't playing with him.  
 

Template 1:   (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 2:   (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 3:   (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 4:   (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 5:   (color)   or   (B&W)