Super Cute Butterfly Magnet Crafts for Kids

It is always fun to create crafts for kids that can also be used as toys. These butterfly magnet crafts for kids were really fun to make. I created part of the craft with Sweet Pea and then finished on my own with the help of a hot glue gun (seriously, is there anything you can’t make with a hot glue gun?). Read below to find out how to make these cute butterfly magnets!

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

Butterfly Magnet Crafts for Kids

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Materials Needed:

  • Cupcake liners– I picked up some cute spring-themed ones that were on sale at the grocery store. You can use any variety that you like!
  • Mini ‘spoon’ craft sticks
  • Dot paint markers in pastel colors
  • scissors
  • a role of magnetic tape
  • Pipe cleaners in spring colors (I used purple, yellow, pink, and green)
  • googly eyes (of course.. how could I resist?). We used the frilly ones with eyelashes for two of the butterflies and a normal set for the one of the butterflies
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue
  • black sharpie or permanent marker

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

 

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

How to Make the Butterflies: Part I (with your kid)

Note: It really doesn’t matter whether you cut out the wings first or paint the butterfly body first.

  • Cut out butterfly wings from the cupcake liners. At 2 years old, Sweet Pea was not actually cutting out the wings. However, she still had fun practicing her scissor skills. I just gave her a few practice liners to work on.

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

  • Paint the butterfly bodies! This step was really fun and it taught me yet another lesson about the value of process art and young children. Sweet Pea really wanted me to paint with her. So, I started painting my own butterfly bodies.. one color per body. Then I noticed Sweet Pea was more interested in using multiple paint colors per body. You know what? I loved it! So, we ended up with both mono-chromatic and multi-colored bodies.

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

  • Let the butterfly bodies dry. This shouldn’t take too long if you use the dot paint markers.

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

How to Make the Butterflies: Part II (on your own*)

Note*: I did this part on my own because Sweet Pea is 2 years old and I didn’t want her anywhere near a hot glue gun. If your kids are older/when you think your kids are old enough, they could help with this part. I would still strongly recommend adult supervision. Also, I suppose you could use glue but given the number of moving parts, that might prove cumbersome. The hot glue gun was fantastic!

  • Turn the butterfly body over and use the hot glue gun to glue the butterfly wings onto the body (the printed side of the cupcake liner will also be face down at this point).
  • Keep the butterfly body and wings face down. Cut a 3-4″ strip from the magnetic tape roll.
  • Cut that strip in half and peel off the adhesive backing.

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

  • Hot Glue the magnetic strip to the back of the body. Even if the magnetic strip is technically tape, if you want your butterfly magnets to not fall apart after a day, I would hot glue the magnet into place.
  • Choose a pipe cleaner color (anything would be fine but I deliberately tried to match) and cut two 1 1/2″ pieces (approximately) from the end for the antennae.

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

  • Squirt a generous dab of hot glue to the back top of the butterfly body (where the head would be). Stick the antennae into the glue and move them around until you are happy with how they look.
  • Turn the butterfly over and hot glue the googly eyes to the butterfly head.
    • For variety, I didn’t glue googly eyes to the multi-colored butterflies.
    • You might want to use craft glue instead of hot glue for this step since very little glue is needed to stick the eyes on.
  • Use a sharpie or black marker to draw on the mouth. I didn’t mean to draw a frown on one of the butterflies but it still turned out cute. Plus, Sweet Pea noticed the butterflies had different moods (happy and sad) so that opened a great opportunity to talk with her about emotions (unintentional Mommy win!).

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

And there you have it. Aren’t these Butterfly Magnet Crafts for Kids so cute?

butterfly magnet crafts for kids

I hope you have as much fun creating these butterflies as we did. Click here for more butterfly craft ideas!

Thanks for reading and happy crafting!
Sara

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6 Comments

  1. Pingback: Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop #85 | ABC Creative Learning
  2. These are so cute! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us again next week!