Watercolor Butterfly Tutorial

You may have noticed on the VBS post below the fun bug displays made my daughters and myself. Here are the project directions. This could be a fun science or art project to add to your homeschool lessons or even a summer project. 

Supplies: 

• Pictures of Butterflies out of books or magazines.
• Tracing Paper or Light Tracer or a bright window and tape. 
• Watercolor paper
• Pencil
• Good Quality watercolors
• Paint Brushes
• Jar of Clean Water
• Napkin (for cleaning and drying paint brush)
• Scissors

        

Step 1: First lightly trace pictures of butterflies out of books or magazines. You can do this using a light tracer. I have one and we use it all the time for projects. You can also tape your picture and your blank paper to a sunny window. It is harder to do this because of the angle, but doable. The third option is to just place tracing paper over your picture and copy. Then rub this image onto another paper by turning it over onto your clean paper and rubbing the back.

Step 2: Using your photos as a guide, begin painting your butterflies. Take your time and really examine the colors. Don't add to much water if you want brighter colors.

Step 3: When you are finished you can attach bobby pins to make hair pins, glue them to a board and frame them or come up with something else creative to do with them. How about a 3D birthday card? Link back with your completed butterflies!

Leadership Part 1

This past week my two oldest girls were part of something big. They were part of a group of teens that organized, designed, promoted, taught and led our church's Vacation Bible School. I cannot emphasize how proud of them I am. They prepared for months to welcome nearly 400 children ages 4-12. It all started with a carnival to welcome the community.

My oldest daughter and my son exploring some games. 

Velcro Wall

Bounce House

Giant Inflatable Slide

Face Painting

Ring Toss

European Bungee

The next night started the weeks worth of crafts, games, skits and Bible lessons all taught by our teens. My oldest daughter had a lesson on Zacchaeus. She studied her passage inside and out. She came up with a creative method to present to her age group (4's & 5's) using part puppet, part hands-on and part costume. I am so proud of her, but this isn't the first time she or her sister have been leaders. 

Crazy Hair Night - Rainbow

HOW TO:

1. Wet the hair where you want the color.

2. Using CHALK pastels from your local art store, draw right on to the wet hair.

3. Let dry.

This will wash out easily the next time you shampoo your hair. 

My daughter used cotton batting and bobby pins to make the cloud. 

Caterpillar made from 

HOW TO:

1. Hot glue different colors of pom poms to form the caterpillar body & head. 

2. Hot glue googlie eyes to the head.

3. Cut a small piece of pipe cleaner for the antenna. Hot glue mini pom poms to the ends. Bend in the middle and glue to the caterpillar. 

4. Hot glue caterpillar to a bobby pin.

Dragonfly

We bought these in the floral department of hobby lobby. 

Bee Hive

HOW TO:

1. Braid hair in several sections. 

2. Twist braids around head in a bee hive fashion, bobby pinning as you go. 

3. I purchased these bumble bee's from Hobby Lobby's floral department. They had wires on them already so I just stuck them into the bee hive bun making some of them fly. 

Decorations

 

My daughters painted these using watercolors

Friends working together

Ever since my kids were little I have been preparing them to be leaders. Some of my children are very shy, but I always made opportunities for them to stand up in front of people from the time they were very young. When they were little and I was teaching a Sunday School class, I would bring them with me to participate as my helper. They saw me teach. They saw me lead. When they hit their teens I encouraged them to teach as often as possible by teaching something they were familiar with to a small group of kids. (art lessons for my oldest) These experiences prepared them for this experience, teaching in an engaging way to a large number of children with adults looking on. I am proud of the work my daughters did for the Lord this week. I am thankful to God for the strengths He has given them. I know that as they grow older, they will use this critical skill to serve Him in even greater ways.