Watercolor Butterfly Wings Art

We had a blast creating a huge watercolor mural with the toddlers in my Toddler Class in West Hartford, CT.  The results were so gorgeous that I immediately started dreaming about how to repurpose the 6 foot pieces of cloth.  My daughter loves butterflies so I decided to add some color to our new art studio by creating some giant Watercolor Butterfly Wings Art.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE WATERCOLOR BUTTERFLY WINGS ART

drop cloth
liquid watercolors
paint brushes
metal clothing hangers
cardboard
low temp glue gun
craft twist ties or pipe cleaners

HOW TO MAKE THE WATERCOLOR BUTTERFLY WINGS ART

This project was inspired by the work of the cutest little artists. For my Toddler Time Class I set up a 6 foot piece of drop cloth and a variety of liquid watercolor paints in plastic containers with brushes. The children loved painting on such a large scale. Some used long brush strokes, other children splattered the paint across the cloth (and my ceiling- that’s when you know it’s getting good!).

I left this up for the full hour class and by the time we said goodbye the cloth was a gorgeous mixture of brush strokes and color.

The beauty of the drop cloth is that is dries very fast.  Next I took two metal clothing hangers and bent and twisted them together to make butterfly wings.  We put the wings on the cloth until my daughter found the spot on the cloth that she wanted for wings.

Next we cut around the wire leaving a couple inch border. With the backside of the cloth facing up, put the wires on top and fold the cloth over securing with a hot glue gun.

We made the middle part of the body by covering an oval piece of cardboard with another piece of the watercolor cloth and glue it to the front of the wings.

Attach pipe cleaners or twist ties to the head for antennae and the butterfly is ready to hang.  I attached clear fishing wire and hung it on our wall.  I love the happy colors on the white wall.