Butterfly Art Made With Clothes Pins
The variety of fluttering butterflies gives artists and crafters of all ages many options for recreating them using different media. Make artistic butterflies using standard-sized clothespins, small clothespins made especially for crafting or clip clothespins. Adults and children will enjoy making these items and accessories to decorate the home or give as gifts.
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Household Items
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Let kids drip watercolor paints or water colored with food coloring onto squares of tissue paper, paper towels or round coffee filters to create colorful patterns. Gather the center, place a little glue on the inside opening of the clothespin and tuck the gathered paper in. Wrap a chenille stem around the groove at the top, twisting at the back and curling the ends to create antennae. Paint on a face or use googly eyes. Use a clip clothespin and the same procedure to turn those decorated papers into butterfly paper clips. Simply wrap a pipe cleaner through the spring for antennae and add a magnet. Add it to a gift package with a card attached. Alternatively, use small, craft clothespins to gather the paper squares and attach them to hair clips for gifts or personal use. Small clothespins and hair clips are both available in craft stores.
Fabric
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Use bits of lace, fabrics or decorative ribbons to create butterfly wings. Gather small, lace doilies and tuck into a clothespin. Add glitter or jewels around the edges. Create two sets of wings from loops of colorful satin or velvet ribbons, tie together with a twist-tie, and then tuck them into a clothespin. Glue additional jewels onto the clothespin. As an alternative, use scraps of tulle, velvet or any fabric to cut wing shapes, and then gather and paint them with puffy fabric paints to add details. Hang a variety of colorful butterflies from a mobile made from a coordinating fabric-covered clothes hanger.
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Beads
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String beads with large holes onto pipe cleaners or chenille stems and twist the stems to create the shape of butterfly wings. Slide them into the opening of the clothespin and glue in place. Paint the clothespin with acrylic paints, and add chenille-stem antennae with a bead at the tips. Cut out small pictures of family and friends' faces and glue to the head of the clothespin. Use these butterflies as decorative holiday ornaments. Alternatively, use clip clothespins to make smaller versions of this style, and tie a ribbon or cord through the spring to make necklaces for family and friends or to use as party favors. For another alternative, glue the butterflies to a plastic headband for a decorative fashion accessory.
Papers
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Use decorative scrapbooking papers to cut elaborately shaped wings and glue them inside a clothespin. Glue two coordinating papers with wrong sides together to show designs on front and back of the wings when they fly. Paint the clothespin and hang it from ribbons in a window where it can fly in a breeze. Alternatively, create a wall hanging by making large and small clothespin butterflies and mounting them in an open frame or a shadowbox with decorative background papers. Consider using scraps of wallpaper, construction paper, colored tissue paper or recycled bags and papers to create a variety of butterfly clips, magnets, hair accessories, gift cards or home decorations.
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References
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
