May 20, 2010

Glow Stick Butterflies


Who doesn't love glow sticks? Along with fruit roll-ups and ordering from the grown-up menu, glow sticks were a rare treat growing up. So when I saw packs of glowsticks in Target's dollar spot, I didn't hesitate to toss them in the cart. Inspired by Martha's glow stick spiders, I helped the girls create glow stick butterflies (because one spider craft in a month is enough). To make your own butterflies, you'll need four glow sticks, two connectors, and several pipe cleaners.

1. Using a connector, attach two glow sticks.


2. Loop one end of the glow stick up to the connector and attach with a rubber band.


3. Loop the other end up and push through a couple strands of the rubber band to secure.


4. Repeat with two more glow sticks.

5. Hold the two sets of wings together and secure by wrapping a pipe cleaner around them both. You may need to use two pipe cleaners to fully secure.


6. Thread a shorter pipe cleaner through the body of the butterfly and twist off to create antennae.

7. Turn out the lights and let those butterflies flutter!


Be careful - in the wrong hands they become attack-butterflies!


I think these would be beautiful hanging from trees during a backyard party or dangling from the ceiling during a sleepover! Ours preferred to dance and fly around the room. They're now in the freezer hopefully to be resurrected tomorrow night.

The Listening Walk (Miss Spider) by David Kirk

The Listening Walk (Miss Spider)While this craft could go along with a number of books - including the The Very Quiet Cricket (think "luna moth") - this was the book I chose. I'm not a huge Miss Spider fan, but I can't deny that the computer generated illustrations are amazing. In this story, Wiggle can't sleep from fear of all the scary noises he hears outside. His mom takes him on a nighttime listening walk to place a face to all the noises. As he learns what makes each of the sounds, his fears are soothed and his view of the nighttime forest is altered.

It's obviously a good one for kids who are entering the "scared of the dark" phase, but the charming rhymes and engaging illustrations should entertain any preschooler.

I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventure
- SOYS @ Fireflies & Jellybeans

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great idea. My daughter (who loves glow sticks and butterflies) will LOVE this. :)

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  2. Love it! How pretty how simple. (and actually much nicer than the original spiders!!) ;-)

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  3. How cute are those! My daughters will love making them. Lily just released butterflies from her classroom yesterday.

    I agree with you about Miss Spider...the stories are OK, but the illustrations are very cool! This book actually looks better than the one we've read.

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  4. LOVE it - my kids would go crazy making those :)

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  5. That is so cool! (I really like the name of your blog, BTW.)

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  6. Oh YES!!! We have a bit of a glow stick fetish at our house- this is gonna be SO FUN to make!

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  7. What an awesome project!!! We'll have lots of fun making these, thanks for the idea : )

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  8. What a beautiful idea! It's time to introduce glow stick art in our house. I am not a big fan of Miss Spider either :)

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  9. How very creative. We usually pick up those sticks around the 4th but never thought of using them in crafts.

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  10. Oh my goodness, Christianne, you are so creative! These are just too cute for words! I love it! :)

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  11. That is so cool! I've also seen them at our local Dollar Tree-score! Thanks so much, I'll be linking.

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  12. I also remember playing with glow sticks when I was younger and waving them around in the dark. I might go buy some now lol. Looks like fun.

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  13. Sweet! I have a couple packages of these sitting around from a party a few months ago . . . this is a perfect way to use these up.

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  14. These are totally awesome! I love the pictures at the end with the light swirls in them from the butterflies. What a great use for glowsitcks :0)

    Thank you for linking up to stART!!

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  15. this is such a simple and cute idea. I loved that you pared it with a book. So clever!

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  16. Just wanted to let you know I featured you here:

    http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/2010/05/sunday-spotlight-soys-28-favorites.html

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  17. I also remember playing with glow sticks when I was younger and waving them around in the dark.
    Light Up Toys | Glow in the Dark Necklaces

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  18. Love this idea...I'll have to get some next time I see them at the dollar store.

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