Thursday, February 11, 2010

Coffee Filter Butterflies


This isn't an original craft by any means but it was a lot of fun so I thought I'd share. It all started when I was scheduled to be the project parent for preschool a few weeks ago. Monkey had regaled us with stories of how one day he and his friends were butterflies at school and they "migrated" to the gym and back. He thought it was pretty cool so I decided we'd make butterflies on my day that week. Google never lets me down - so Phase I of the Coffee Filter Butterfly project was implemented. But one day of butterflies wasn't enough for Monkey. He decided he wanted a "whole bunch" and that we needed to hang them in his room. So I got some supplies and we set to work. This time it was serious. He was determined to make an entire "army" of butterflies.

Besides being a super cute end product the "getting there" portion of this craft is rife with learning possibilities (and just plain fun).

So here's what you'll need to make them the way we did at home (school was a different story):

1) Coffee filters

2) Food coloring (food coloring stains clothes and skin so be prepared for you and your kiddos to have colorful fingers for a few days). You could also do this project with liquid watercolor (less mess) but I didn't have any on hand.

3) Spray bottle with water (Tip: get a small one in the travel section so it's easy to handle for small hands - notice the behemoth bottle Monkey is using)

4) pipe cleaners

The cool thing about coffee filters is that they're absorbent so it's fun to see how the color bleeds. We experimented with wetting before and after the color was applied. Wetting the filter first and then dropping on the colors is the most spectacular so I'd save that for last. Here's how we did it.

(Wetting after)
1) Spread out a few coffee filters (you can do one at a time but we were making an "army" so ended up stacking about 5 at a time) - you'll need to thoroughly wet to get color on all the filters in the stack

2) Drip colors onto filters (we also experimented using daubers which was fun but not as dramatic or as satisfying as dripping the colors)

3) Spray with water and watch bleed (you'll need to wet through if you are making more than one at a time)

(Wetting first)
1) Spread out a few coffee filters

2) Spray filters with water - completely wet or partially wet to see how the color reacts differently

3) Drip colors onto filters


Monkey really liked wetting first and dripping after. It was definitely the most dramatic reaction as the colors bleed immediately and give a great batik effect. The natural progression of this project led to a discussion on how colors mix and a slight introduction to primary/secondary colors. I think you could really go crazy with that with an older child. Monkey really likes to make brown more than anything.

4) Set filters aside to dry. (We let them dry in their stacks and separated after they were dry so they wouldn't rip - Monkey loves the spray bottle so they were saturated).


5) Now you just need to twist a pipe cleaner around the center and create the antennae. You can either accordion-fold and twist the pipe cleaner in the middle or I found scrunching by hand was easier and faster. Then fluff the wings a bit. I was also informed that butterflies have FOUR wings so after that we made a bunch with four wings. All you need to do for that is stack two scrunched filters and tie together with the pipe cleaner. Then flatten out the wings.

We hung our finished butterflies with fishing line. Cheap and easy room decor - watch out Martha!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the butterflies.

ksjjpalmer said...

cool. I know both of my kids would love this one!

Teacher Tom said...

Really pretty. What a great mom you are!

Unknown said...

Awesome! I'm working on my lesson plans now and this will defnitly go into March's list.

Stoppin by from SITS!

http://carrigansjoy.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Stopping by from SITS! I love the butterfly idea. Very creative!

TornadoTwos said...

Stopping by from SITS. I love this idea, I think both my 4 and 2 year old would be able to do it. This will work great in our preschool program.

Tina L. Hook said...

Really cute idea. I have a box of coffee filters I accidentally bought in the wrong size for a few years now. There may be butterflies in my future...

Stopping by from SITS.

Erin Bassett said...

That looks so fun! Great project!!

katy said...

I love how bright the colors are. Great job!!

Jenn @ Delicious Ambiguity said...

Just wanted to let you know that I've featured you on my blog: http://delicious-ambiguity-nennyk.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-crafts-for-little-hands.html. Feel free to grab a FEATURED button from the top left hand side of my page. I've also got a MckLinky party called Tot Tuesdays. I hope you'll stop by & link up some more of your great ideas for tots! Cheers!

Unknown said...

I love these. You totally rocked it out of the park with this. Your step by step directions are the best! I am going to send the link to my friend with a preschooler. I think she will love this.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Butterflies. I did not have pipe cleaners so we ended up framing them and kids are very impressed!! You can see the final result here: http://nara-saz.blogspot.com/2010/04/remember-those-coffee-filters.html
Best Always!!
JV
http://nara-saz.blogspot.com/

Florist said...

it reminds me when i was an assistant teacher in pre-school.

Lindsay Burden said...

I found your blog through Delicious Ambiguity, and I just wanted to tell you I LOVE this idea! We made a coffee filter butterfly today, and it came out so cute! Thanks!!