The flowers have bloomed and the butterflies are out and about! Celebrate spring with this Paper Butterfly Craft for kids, with a free template to download!

There are a lot of lessons we can learn from animals and wildlife, like hard work from ants, loyalty from dogs, organization from bees and many others. Most of these lessons are quite obvious, but there are other subtle lessons that we can learn from the natural world – like the one a butterfly teaches us.

The average life span of a butterfly is one month – yes, just one month! Yet, that doesn’t stop the butterfly from working towards becoming a better version of itself, and doing its job in the ecosystem. And to think of all the time we humans waste!

Rabindranath Tagore said, “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” Let’s teach our kids the value of moments with a cute Paper Butterfly Craft that won’t take long to make, and is very pretty!

Paper Butterfly Craft + Free Template

List of Supplies:

• Free Template  – Right Click on the image to download
• Colored craft paper
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Black marker or gel pen or sharpie

Instructions to make the Paper Butterfly Craft:

1. Download & print the template.  Select a bright craft paper for the main parts (wings and body) of the butterfly. Trace the wings, body and the 2 antennae on the selected craft paper. Cut out the traced patterns.

2. Use a black gel pen or a sharpie to draw the smiley face and stripes on the body of the butterfly.

3. Stick the antennae at the top of the butterfly’s body, applying glue to the back side.

4. Now get craft papers of different colors to make the patterns on the wing. Trace the patterns neatly and cut them out. Arrange them on a flat surface to get an idea of their exact positions.

5. Stick the pattern pieces on the butterfly wings, carefully attaching them on the right positions; refer to the template to have a clear idea about the patterns’ positions on the wings.

6. Similarly attach the patterns on the other wing. You can use random colors for each pattern or keep a balanced color combination for each pattern.

7. Take the butterfly body and carefully attach it on the middle part of the wings.

8. Finish up by sticking the small tear drop patterns on the wings. You can add customized patterns as well.

Now, wasn’t that easy? The free template helps you get the pieces exactly as you need them, which means all you need to do then is assemble it all together. Have more fun with butterflies by making other crafts like our crepe paper butterflies, accordion fold butterfly, stick and leaf butterfly as well as an edible butterfly roti sandwich!