Butterfly Paper Hand Puppet

Our insect hand puppet series continues with this adorable butterfly paper hand puppet.

This adorable paper craft is super fun to make and play with. We even included a craft template your kids can use to make one – color it in or use it as a template.

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While this isn’t the first in a series of products we’ve shared on our site (have you seen this ladybug paper puppet?), when we were planning these ladybug friends, the butterfly was the first one. There’s just something about the flapping of wings.

This is my favorite butterfly in the series (although the others are pretty cool too) because its wings flap so beautifully when you move the butterfly puppet up and down in the air (I really, really like the sound the paper wings make).

If your child enjoys coloring and adding their own personal touch to their work, then templates/stencils are the perfect choice for them to use.

Of course you can also do this craft project for kids without a template.

Ready? Let’s make a butterfly puppet!

How to make a butterfly paper hand puppet

What you need

our printable template (you can get it at the end of this tutorial)
printer
drag
glue
paper (white or colored paper – craft paper would be great for the body while regular printer paper would be best for the wings to keep them light)

Optional: coloring supplies, eye patches, blackening tool, circle punch

Watch Video Tutorial

Follow these step-by-step instructions

Print out our template. We have 3 sizes to fit a variety of hand sizes – from toddlers to adults.

If you decide to color this craft, we recommend coloring the pieces before cutting them out. Be creative! A little glitter never hurts (just like glitter glue never hurts, we all know glitter can hurt, when you have to clean it up).

Cut the pieces out.

Trace the body of the butterfly onto a piece of brown cardstock (gray or black will do, really any color).

Cut out. Decorate the head – we used wiggle eye stickers because we like working with them and drew the mouth on with a black marker.

Cut out the legs. The easiest way to do this is to cut out a rectangle with all the legs. Do not cut out individual legs.

Draw a rectangle on brown cardboard.

Now cut the legs.

Fold your legs like an accordion.

Glue them to the body of the butterfly.

Draw the wings on paper. Our wings will be yellow.

Cut off the wings.

Decorate the wings to your liking (the more colorful the merrier).

Glue the wings to the body (fold at the base).

Cut the strap and glue it to the bottom of the butterfly hand puppet.

Everything done and ready to fly!

We hope you enjoyed creating this craft and will have fun playing with it.