Inspired by the Kaboose Coffee Filter Butterfly, the boys made this simple but really cute craft using flattened coffee filters, dip and dot paint dotters, chenille stems, and washable kids paint. Filip wouldn't be himself had he not added the finger painting technique!

When I was at elementary school, I loved loved loved making tissue paper suncatcher mosaics. And, to my own surprise, I was quite good at it! In fact, several of my classmates asked me to make suncatchers for them. Naturally, I used different designs but the same technique. I wonder if the teacher knew...:). 

Making this craft with Dominik & Filip was so much fun! First, I printed a simple butterfly template on craft paper in two colors. Dominik requested brown and Filip chose pink. I drew a line around each butterfly and cut out half-an-inch frames. I attached clear contact paper to the frames and gave them to the boys. Their job was to cut out small pieces of colorful tissue paper and stick them onto the contact paper. Dominik added a twist to the process: he counted every single piece of tissue he attached to his mosaic. 62 was the number. In fact, this kept him going. He is definitely more of a scientist than a patient artist! 

After the boys were done with cutting and pasting the tissue paper, I attached clear contact paper on the other side of the design. Shortly after, the butterflies landed on the kitchen window. They turned out really great!

At school, Filip learned The Fuzzy Caterpillar song (sang to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider), made butterfly and caterpillar crafts, and read Bob and Otto as well as The Crunching Munching Caterpillar. Dominik's class did a general insect theme. He loved the Insect Song and he learned the stages of butterfly growth. At home we also did a few coloring pages and mazes.

This is our Kaboodle Butterfly Craftboard featuring most of the items we used as well as some additional butterfly crafting ideas.