Paper craft · Easy · about 20 minutes

Accordion Butterfly

Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested

  • Square of colored paper for the big wings, 150 x 150 mm (6 x 6 in)
  • Square of colored paper for the small wings, 100 x 100 mm (4 x 4 in)
  • Strip of paper for the body, 150 x 10 mm (6 x 3/8 in)
  • Blunt-tip scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Pencil (to curl the antennae)
  • Ruler

For the grown-up: Help cut the thin body strip straight, and hold the pinched wings while the child wraps the strip.

Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.

Finished

Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.

  1. Start. Start with the big square. Lay it flat with the colored side facing up.

  2. 1. Valley fold: Fold the bottom edge up about 1.5 cm (1/2 in), about as wide as your finger. Press it flat.

  3. turn over
    the fold is underneath

    2. Turn over: Turn the paper over from left to right.

  4. the fold is underneath

    3. Valley fold: Fold the folded edge up again by the same width.

  5. turn over, fold, repeat
    a thin folded stickthe stick from one end

    4. Valley fold: Keep turning the paper over and folding up until the whole square is a thin folded stick.

  6. back and forth
    a smaller stick

    5. Valley fold: Fold the small square into a stick the same way.

  7. pinch the middle

    6. Place: Pinch each stick in the middle. Lay the small stick just under the big stick.

  8. 1 cm
    1 cm

    7. Cut: Cut a strip 1 cm (3/8 in) wide from the edge of the colored sheet.

  9. 1 cm
    glue

    8. Glue: Rub glue on the middle of the strip only.

  10. wrap

    9. Put together: Wrap the strip around the pinched middle of both sticks. Press it tight, with the two ends sticking up.

  11. 10. Open: Gently spread each folded stick open like a fan. These are the wings.

  12. curlcurl

    11. Curl: Roll each antenna tip around a pencil, then slide the pencil out. Your butterfly is ready!

If something goes wrong