Make a beautiful coffee filter butterfly craft using water colour paints and clothes pegs! Such a simple, classic nature craft which looks gorgeous hanging in the window or as a mobile for a baby.
Miss 5 declared that she wanted “to make some butterfly art” the other day, so I remembered this classic craft which we haven’t tried yet an set it up as an after school art activity for us all to do together. I love the simplicity of these and that they require so few materials and create very little mess (always an extra bonus when getting creative at the end of the day!)
To make this coffee filter butterfly craft you need:
clothes pegs/ pins (either plain or painted like the ones we made below)
solid or liquid watercolour paints
coffee filters
We got our coffee filters from a friend who brought them back from the USA, but you can get similar smaller ones here in the UK. If you can’t find them, it actually doesn’t matter. You can use thick kitchen towel instead, or cut a circle of thick watercolour or blotting paper, but whatever you use, it needs to be absorbent. [See link below for watercolours and coffee filters from Amazon UK.]
They set about covering there coffee filters with the vibrantly coloured watercolour paints, making sure to cover all of the white areas and overlapping colours where necessary. This added to the beauty as some colours blended together to make new ones.
They each did a couple and I made some too as it was very relaxing and therapeutic! Once they were nearly dry (which happens quite fast), I carefully pushed them town onto the clothes pegs, which felt a little like pulling a pair of tights up as I had to scrunch it in bit by bit!
Ta da! All done and ready to hang up for display straight away. I looped some fine cotton around the peg heads and hung these up near the windows. They would look beautiful hanging as a mobile in a child’s bedroom or in the creative art space.
This is one of those crafts that is also art, which is so easy to create I’m sure we will return to them often when we need a moment to fill . It would also make a lovely activity to set up for kids to do independently if they wake early in the morning, or to do when friends are over to play.
Take a tour of our Creative Art Area here
See all our other art and craft ideas here
Find similar watercolours here Find large coffee filters here:
The children are: 5, 4 and 2.
[This post contains some Amazon links for your convenience]
Hi Anna,
Wow! I just want to say thank you for your website, I have just come across it and I am so wowed by the amazingly easy & beautiful craft ideas here, I cannot wait to make these butterflies (& lots more of your crafts) for my 2 month old daughter, and eventually with her soon enough! I have already shared your link with others. Thank you so much for sharing.
great, sounds fun!!!!!