Blogger / 11 March, 2019 / Nanny Anita

How to Make a Wind-Up Butterfly

Do you remember having those elastic wind up toys when you were younger? I thought it would be fun to try our hand at making a wind-up butterfly.

Make sure you follow my craft board on Pinterest for more ideas. Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make a wind-up butterfly you will need:

• Pliers
• Wire
• Paper
• Scissors
• Pens
• Tape
• Elastic band
• Washer

You will need to lengths of wire to make the butterfly frame, one needs to be longer than the other.

Bend the smaller piece of wire across each other to create a loop. This will make the top part of the butterfly. The top wings will attach to this part at the end.

Attach the elastic band to the the loop that you made. Then thread the band through the washer. I couldn’t actually find any washers, so I used a foreign coin that had a hole in it.

To make the body of the butterfly start by wrapping the wire around a pen.

Straighten the sides of the wire and fold them over. It kind of looks like a safety pin at this point.

Fold one of the bits of wire around the other, to secure it together, and cut of any excess wire with the pliers.

Repeat the last step with the remaining part of wire. But instead of just cutting the excess off, fold it into a little hook.

To finish the body, fold the loop that you created with the pen over.

To attach the head and body part, thread the elastic band through the circle on the body, then pull it down and hook it onto the hook.

Finally draw, decorate, cut out, and then tape the wings to the body.

To make the butterfly “fly” wind the top part round and round. This should make the elastic band twist. When you think it has twisted enough then let it go. It won’t actually fly off, but instead will spin gracefully down to the ground.

EC and YC didn’t take long to make theirs.  They both kept coming up with new ideas to make it “fly” more; one of them even suggested taking it outside to see if the wind would help.

If you enjoyed this wind-up butterfly be sure to check out my unicorn marionette and spring blossom craft.

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