Today we’ve been making making this sweet dragonfly suncatcher craft. I don’t know about you but I think there’s something quite magical about dragonflies, I don’t get to see many and when I do they always look like they’ve flown straight out of a Harry Potter novel or something!
Both me and my daughter are obsessed with contact paper, me because it’s cheap and makes pretty stuff and it’s fab with crafts like this for fine motor skills so it makes for great crafts for toddlers.
She loves the feel of it and the bright colours so this was a great craft for after preschool.
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Dragonfly Suncatcher
Although it requires some preparation we found this suncatcher craft pretty easy to make, it was certainly achievable for my preschooler who really enjoyed sticking down all the different colours.
Cellophane is really easy to cut as well so you could also use this as a way to practice scissor skills.
You will need:
Contact Paper (Sticky back plastic in the UK)
Washi tape or sellotape
Free Dragonfly Template
For this craft I cut out the dragonfly shapes freehand but since I published the craft I’ve shared a dragonfly template that you could use instead. It’s free to grab so if you’d find this easier with a shape to follow then make sure that you get it.
How to make dragonfly suncatchers
If you haven’t made suncatchers before I’ve linked a video to this page showing how we made our leaf suncatchers. The shape is obviously different but the process is the same so if this is a new technique to you, you might find it helpful to watch.
First cut some dragonfly shapes out of black card then cut holes out of the wings so that these can be filled in to make the suncatchers.
Roll out some contact paper onto a table of box, you will need to tape each of the sides down as it’s very sticky and will just end up in a big ball otherwise! I use washi tape for this as so far it’s never left a mark on anything and it also helps me to justify my washi addiction to my husband.
Cut your cellophane into little shapes, you can of course use coloured tissue paper for this but cellophane is much brighter – we make quite a lot of suncatchers and I would never go back to tissue paper as the colours stay much longer.
At two years old my daughter enjoyed picking up the small pieces of cellophane and putting them onto the contact paper, she really enjoys just playing with the contact paper too, getting her hands and fingers stuck on it.
The picking up the small bits of cellophane is great for fine motor skills, younger kids are likely to place or pour the pieces all over the contact paper while older kids are more likely to fill in the dragonfly’s wings.
Once you’ve finished place another sheet of contact paper on top to secure it all in place and then cut around the dragonflies, they are now ready to put in your window either by using a needle and thread to make a loop you hang them from or rolling a bit of sellotape into a loop to stick at the back of your suncatcher and attach to your window.
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They are so cute and pretty! What a lovely idea x
Great for my three year old