Craft tutorials and free templates

Butterfly sun-catchers

After the wettest April in a hundred years the sun has finally made an appearance in my part of the world! Yay!!!

Butterfly suncatcher

In order to celebrate we have been making sun-catchers. I remember making them when I was a kid but had honestly forgotten just how brilliant they look with the sun streaming through them.

Butterfly suncatcher

Butterfly suncatcher

To make your butterfly sun-catcher you will need:
• Black paper
• Tissue paper
• Pencil crayon
• Scissors
• Craft knife (optional)
• Glue-stick

Butterfly suncatcher



Step 1
Cut a butterfly shape out of a black sheet of paper. If you are not that confident with drawing you can download a template here. (You should be able to print this on black paper and still see the lines.)

Step 2
Using a light coloured pencil-crayon draw shapes onto the wings of the butterfly (if you use the printable template you can skip this bit). Then using a pair of scissors, or a craft, knife cut out the shapes. Most kids will probably need a hand with this step.

Step 3
Get your squares of tissue paper and tear them into strips. You can choose any colours you want but bright colours work best!

Step 4
Get your glue-stick and apply some glue to the wing of the butterfly and then stick the strips across the wing. Don’t worry if the tissue paper overlaps, you can actually create some really interesting effects by layering it in this way. Make sure you lift the butterfly up every now and again, just to make sure it isn’t stuck to your work-surface!

Step 5
Turn your butterfly over and trim the paper strips so that they are level with the outside edge.

Ta-da…
Stick your butterfly to a window…

Top Tip:
To get kids more involved with the cutting stage let them make the holes in the wings using craft punches, or even a hole-punch.

30 thoughts on “Butterfly sun-catchers

  1. beautiful! we used to do these in gradeschool but nowhere near as pretty…will need to try this with my four-year-old soon. thanks for the tutorial and template! ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. This is awesome! I love the back outline against the rainbow. I’ll be linking on WFA Facebook. Thanks for sharing ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Hello theboyandme!

    They look absolutely great…love your butterfly design….as you say they are so easy…yet look so great….best of both worlds I reckon!

    Kate ^_^

  4. This is so incredible. I just posted a short post about bad weather and colorful butterflies. We always use your butterfly template, it is so pretty. I came back to your site for the link, and found your todays butterfly post:)

  5. Thank you very much, you keep remindig me of my childhood and this makes me very happy, kidds and grandfather too. The template is very pretty, I hope you will send us more of your creativity!

  6. Thanks Kimara ^_^

    Just popped over to your blog. Hope all goes well with your Dad.

    Best wishes, Kate

  7. I have a very creative 5 year old that can make something out of anything so this would come in very useful for us to do together would love to win a book ๐Ÿ™‚ x

  8. Yay! So glad it went well Anne. Very sweet to hear they have hung them proudly in their rooms ^_^

  9. je te remercie pour ton gabarit, mes filles et moi nous nous sommes bien amuser a le rรฉaliser .by bye

  10. Beautiful! Just a tip – instead of glue, use contact paper. Lay the template face down on some clear contact paper (sticky side up) and then add the tissue paper. Then top with another sheet of contact paper (sticky side down). Cut around the edges and tape to a window. Less mess and you can keep them for years! That’s how we make ours ๐Ÿ™‚

  11. I love this butterfly and am featuring it as one of the projects on my Squidoo lens, “How to Make Butterfly Crafts.” At one time I read that if you trace over a pattern with green marker, you’ll get a good print of the pattern on black paper. It really does work, I’ve used the method in my art classes.

  12. These are gorgeous. My daughter did one of a stained glass window in art class.

  13. Well done Antonia…they look ace.

    Cutting out quite tricky…will stick to simpler designs in the future!
    Kate x

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.