Butterfly Collage:
This project is very easy, very affordable*, and very fun.
*especially if you take advantage of 40% off coupons at Michael's or Hobby Lobby.
Pumpkin completed this project last year, when she was in kindergarten.
We spent several days doing her collage...doing just a little bit each day.
Materials needed:
(1) Blank Canvas
(2) Acrylic Paint
(3) Watercolor Paper
(4) Watercolor Paint
(5) Paper Punch (We used a butterfly punch from Martha Stewart's paper punch line.)
(6) Pop Dots (or other adhesive)
Steps:
(1) Using acrylilc paint, paint canvas. Use several coats of paint for best results.
(2) Using watercolors, paint splotchy bits all over watercolor paper. No rhyme; no reason. Just paint.
(3) Let watercolor dry. (Completely. Overnight is best.)
(4) Using paper punch, begin punching shapes.
Here's the punch we used. Martha has some really great punches. (Way to go, MS. Butterfly Paper Punch: It's a good thing.)
We discovered that it was easiest to cut the watercolor paper into strips and THEN punch out the shapes.
(5) Adhere punched shapes to canvas. For our butterflies, we did a *slight* bend in the middle of each butterfly. Then, we attached a tiny "pop dot" (which is sticky on both sides) to ONE of the wings. We alternated wings. This gives the effect of the butterflies flying around in all directions.
There you have it! A beautiful butterfly collage.
Here's a short video of Pumpkin telling us more about her collage:
butterflies in the morning from ellie and abbie on Vimeo.
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Related:
When Ellie lived in DC, I got to visit her twice. (Once for a fun visit, and once for a fun wedding! {hers})
On the first visit, we did lots of museum hopping. Here's one of my photos (above): a butterfly collection from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Aren't butterflies beautiful? All the colors...all the symmetry....I just love them.
Also, here's a little photo group I made from flickr photos which feature butterfly collages. The sky's the limit on this concept.
1. butterfly - free, no copyrights, 2. Butterfly collage, 3. weekend creative : punch collage, 4. white_butterflies_02, 5. Butterfly Escort Cards, 6. Paper butterfly collage, 7. butterfly collection, 8. Butterfly Picture, 9. Butterfly collage
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Related Links:
Ali Edwards : Butterfly Punch Collage - Ali's post was the original inspiration for our butterfly collage. Wonderful idea. (Thanks, Ali!)
The Idea Room : Butterfly Collage
