Butterfly Paper Bag Puppet
Craft this adorable butterfly paper bag puppet using the free template! When you’re done, try making a bee puppet too. This post contains affiliate links.
Puppet play is great for children in so many ways, building their imagination, language, and social skills while they feel like they’re just having fun.
It helps to have a variety of different puppets to keep things interesting and spark new ideas. Here is a great new puppet character to add to your collection.
Making this butterfly puppet is an excellent fine-motor skills activity as the free downloadable template has many shapes to cut out. The project can easily be modified by using fewer pieces for kids who have a harder time with the cutouts, or you can give them a head start by cutting some of the smaller pieces yourself before they begin.
By providing the smaller pieces already cut, you give them the opportunity to build their skills by grasping and positioning these pieces even while their cutting skills are still catching up.
This post includes a free template (which you can download for free below) and pictures of one butterfly design in two colors, but all artists and crafters are of course welcome to use their creativity to arrange the shapes and designs however they like!
In addition to arranging the paper cutouts, you can also use any materials you have to decorate your butterfly – my personal favorites are sequins and glitter glue.
The samples shown below use orange, red, and pink papers, or blue and purple, but any colors you like will work great for this craft. For best results, choose two contrasting colors for the wing patterns so your design shows clearly.
What you’ll need
- Paper – construction paper, copy paper, or cardstock are all great choices.
- Paper bag
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Markers
- Glue – such as liquid school glue or tacky glue
How to make a Paper Bag Butterfly Template
1. Download the template and print it out on letter-sized paper. Cut out all the parts and trace them onto the colored papers of your choice.
Cut out the colored shapes. Try to keep the similar shapes together to make the next steps easier.
2. Use a small dab of glue to attach the antenna shapes to the top of the head.
3. Use markers to add detail to the eye cutouts. Use a small dab of glue to attach the eyes near the top of the head. Glue the little cheek circles on each side of the face.
4. Use a marker to draw a mouth. A simple line will do very nicely!
5. Take the largest wing shapes (the two matching ones) and glue the next-largest wing shapes onto them (the four heart-shaped pieces – two larger ones for the top of each wing, and two smaller ones for the bottom of each wing.)
6. Arrange the teardrop-shaped cutouts on top of the wing shapes. Once you are happy with the arrangement, use glue to attach them.
7. Arrange the remaining little circle cutouts on top of the teardrop shapes to make a design. Glue them into place. Add any other wing decorations you like using markers, glitter, gems, or any craft supplies you have on hand.
8. Choose a colored paper to be the body of your butterfly. Take your paper bag and trace its shape onto the paper. Cut out the paper so that it is the same size as the paper bag.
9. Use markers to make stripes or another simple pattern on the body paper. You don’t have to do this, but it’ll add a pretty texture. Glue it onto the paper bag.
10. Flatten the bottom of the paper bag so that it is on the same side as your butterfly body design. Turn the bag so that the part that would be the bottom of a bag is now the top of your puppet. Glue the head onto that bottom part.
11. Glue the wings onto each side of the body.
When all the glue is dry, open the bag and put it over your hand to use the butterfly paper bag puppet! Make a few of these so all the butterflies can be friends!
Download the free butterfly puppet templaet
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