Making Egg Box Caterpillars and Butterfly Painting

When I knew that we were soon headed to London to see the Sensational Butterflies exhibition I knew I wanted to do some related crafting with Monkey in preparation. So I googled a few things and got some lovely inspiration from Twitter (thanks guys!) and then gave Monkey the option of making butterflies or caterpillars. He chose caterpillars so I showed him a few pictures online of different ones we could make – finger painting, pom poms etc, but he chose the ones made from egg boxes and tissue paper.

So I duly cut up an egg box (we have the big long 12 egg boxes and I’m not sure they are the best ones for the job as they were slightly one-sided caterpillars but it sufficed anyway) and some tissue paper, dug out some googly eyes from the bottom of the craft draw and we set off doing Monkey’s favourite thing – gluing and sticking!!

caterpillars 1

As mentioned I don’t think our egg boxes are the best ones so we tried making them two different ways – first with a long caterpillar but with holes down one side, and second with a short one as I folded the row in half and then taped it together. I’m not sure which is best or if it makes much difference actually, Monkey loved making both!

caterpillars 2

The first I chose the colours (note The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme) but the second one was Monkey’s choice and it had to be all red (his favourite colour).

egg box caterpillars

Googly eyes were stuck on, and apparently they needed to have a smily face too, and I wasn’t sure what to use so I just grabbed a couple of pipe cleaners, snipped short lengths to be bent into shape and we glued them on, which I don’t think looks too bad really!

We did then go on to do a bit of butterfly craft too, in Nanny’s birthday card. It was the first time we had done the traditional, paint one side and fold together, butterfly painting, but actually he did really well with it! He painted in the lines I told him too and splodged some lovely patterns on the right hand side and it looked lovely after folding toegther. then of course we had to do some more gluing and sticking with sequins and give it a smily face using some glitter glue 🙂

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Mamavsteacher#ToddlerApprovedTuesday

21 thoughts on “Making Egg Box Caterpillars and Butterfly Painting

  1. These are both great ideas, I’d forgotten all about folding paper for printing with Sprog…might have to try that soon.

    Thanks for linking up to #imaginationmatters this week, it would be lovely to see you next week for the “around the world” theme!

  2. I love his caterpillars! They look so cute, and it seems like a fun activity to do. I’m sure Nanny will really appreciate her personalized birthday card, it looks so pretty 🙂 #letkidsbekids

  3. They are great ideas. I wish I was more crafty. I know I’m going to have to improve my skills as my son gets older and more interested in it. For now he is happy with the paint and paper but I know it’s only a matter of time before he wants to start making things. I will definitely be remembering this for the future #Toddlerapprovedtuesday

  4. That is such a pretty butterfly! The caterpillars look great too. We did something similar a couple of yrs ago and my girls loved it. Monkey looks very engaged with his caterpillars.
    Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids

  5. Brilliant idea. When told last week on holiday that she could pick a souvenir from the shop, my youngest said she wanted a caterpillar… This could be this weekend’s entertainment! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday #LetKidsBeKids

  6. Awww, these are so gorgeous and made me quite nostalgic and teary eyed, remembering the crafts I used to do with my daughters in their pre-school years. Butterflies and caterpillars are glorious no matter how old a person is though 😉 x

  7. Lucas says – Monkey!!! You rock with your Caterpillars and Butterflies 🙂
    The Mother says – Now, we know that you’ve linked this to #minicreations but we’ve actually popped over from #letkidsbekids and we love this post so much. Monkey is also growing sooooo quickly xx

  8. Another great choice of activities Caroline, i love those egg carton caterpillars super cute!!

    Thanks for linking up to #ToddlerApprovedTuesday and sorry my comment is so late! X

  9. Lucas says – Monkey, as ever you have been so cool. I am loving the Caterpillars. We went to the Zoo yesterday and they had a Butterfly house and one landed on the Mother’s shoulder. It was very cool 🙂 Thanks for linking to #minicreations and sending you XL MEGA HIgh-5’s for the Summer!!!!

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