Paper Craft: Magical Window Butterflies

Kite Paper Butterfly

On a grey and rainy day, we daydream more than ever of flowers, sunshine and butterflies. This is a quick and simple tutorial to make your own sun-catcher window butterflies, a fun and simple craft that will help add some magic, colour and spring to your window view.

You’ll need: Kite Paper (tissue paper may work as well) Glue, Scissors and Tape.

Start by folding your kite paper sheet in half:

Then cut carefully along the edge:

Now you want to fold your half sheets into half, and cut along the edges to make four squares:

Here’s a neatly cut square to work with:

Fold the square in half diagonally:

Now take the outer corners and fold inward to meet the middle crease:

Do the same to the other side:

Glue them down, so they look like this:

Now take the bottom and fold inwards along the crease:

Repeat with the other side, line up as neatly as you can:

Glue both sides down, it should now look like this:

Fold the top tip down:

All done! now repeat the above 4 times:

You’ll then need a fifth square which will be the body. I recommend using a different colour. I chose golden orange. Repeat all the steps above until it looks like this:

(There’s no need to fold the top down for this one)

This next bit is a tad tricky, you need to do another fold bringing the outside edge toward the inner crease:

It should look like this once you’ve glued it down:

Glue some extra strips to the top to make the antenna - now you have all the pieces of the butterfly!

You can layer the wing pieces in different ways:

Glue it all together:

And attach the body:

All done!! :) Now you can experiment with different colour combinations.

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”

― Zhuangzi

I hope you enjoy this craft and it helps to brighten up your view. Leave a photo comment below, I’d love to see what you come up with!

Serenely,

Paula