Butterfly Kite Kid’s Craft With Straws

Here’s a great butterfly kite craft for kids, that you might not be able to resist yourself, since the results are just so much fun! Last week I shared with you the kites we made from straws and tissue paper, and we just couldn’t stop with classic kite shapes, since there are so many possibilities once you start playing around with the straws! I just love this butterfly, and hope to make some more to hang on a wall in my courtyard garden.

Sweet right? And they’re really simple to make. So simple that you could definately make a bunch for some great party decorations this summer!

You’ll Need:

• plastic drinking straws, we used neon colored ones
• white glue, we used high tack craft glue which is a bit hard to squeeze out of the bottle for kids, but helps speed the project along
• colored tissue paper
• white string or yarn
• round wooden skewers (or toothpicks will work if that’s what you have on hand)
• mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water
• a hot glue gun (for adult assistance)
• scissors

Step 1: Cut pieces of straws and glue them to your tissue paper base to form a butterfly shape.  You can make kites of any size, though for the largest size possible, use complete straws for your outside border and then fill in the inside framework with pieces cut to size as necessary. The horizontal cross bar pieces should be placed in the top third, not centered (as I originally did, as you can see by the glue line in the photo) so that the kite will be properly balanced.

Step 2: After the glue has dried somewhat or better yet, completely (we couldn’t wait that long!) cut out your kites by cutting the tissue paper just along the border formed by the straws. To stabilize the kite, run a wooden skewer through the horizontal cross bar straw pieces. Round wooden bamboo bar-b-que skewers are exactly the right size for this project, or possibly just a bit long, so trim the excess with sharp scissors.

Step 3: Apply designs to the front of your kite with mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water, and once dry thread a string through the straws at the top of each wing. Voila, a super fun butterfly kite is born.

To learn how to make the other kites seen in the top photo, see my previous post here, and enjoy!

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