Color a butterfly made of paper or paint itn but there are other ways to decorate too. You can cover it with scales as it is in nature, for example.

To do this, you need some pieces of colored paper, a big sheet of thick paper, scissors, a pencil and glue.

1. Take the big sheet of thick paper and fold it in the middle.

2. Draw half a butterfly on it as you can see in the picture. The body should meet the fold.

3. Take your scissors and cut it out but don’t cut the fold. Make sure that you cut through both layers of paper.

4. If you unfold it now, you have a wonderful, symmetric butterfly.

5. So it’s time for the scales now. Take a piece of colored paper, fold it a few times and draw a scale on it that is about the size of your thumbnail (maybe a bit bigger, this depends on the size of your butterfly.). This way it’s easier to get more scales. Try to get as many scales as possible and do the same with the other pieces of colored paper.

6. Have a look at your butterfly. You can design it now with the scales. Start at the wing tips and glue the first row of scales following the edge of the wings. Make sure that the pointed ends of the scales point to the body in the middle.

7. Then you can go on with the next row. Its scales should cover the first row’s scales’ halves. It should look like the overlapping tiles on a roof (see pictures).

first row

second row

fifth row

8. When you have finished the second row, do the third one, then the fourth and so on. Using different colors you can create your individual design.