Butterflies are beautiful creations of nature that attract everyone with their variety of colors and shapes. Crafts depicting such insects can decorate any interior item, especially if you create them from durable material. Making butterflies from a plastic bottle with your own hands is quite simple. Items made from plastic are durable. They are only afraid of fire and strong heat, as they can be deformed.
In every house there are unnecessary containers that can be used in creating crafts. You will learn how to make a butterfly out of a plastic bottle after reading the article below.
What do you need for work?
Before starting any needlework, it is advisable to pre-prepare the necessary materials so that during work you will not be distracted by searches for the missing element. If you are planning to make butterflies from a plastic bottle with your own hands, then, of course, prepare an empty unnecessary container. A two-liter bottle with smooth smooth sides will do.
To cut butterflies out of plastic, you need sharp-edged scissors. Pick a picture along the contours of which a template will be made. To circle it, you will need a marker.
Think about how you will decorate the workpiece. We can also advise you to put next to a hot iron or a candle and an awl. Why these items are needed, we will tell in the following sections.
How to make a template?
Not every child and even an adult has the gift of an artist and can draw a beautiful butterfly. Do not be discouraged if you are not one of them. Our article will come to the rescue. Of course, there are a huge number of options of varying complexity. But we will present you like this.
If you do not have a printer, then the image needs to be saved on the desktop and dropped onto a USB flash drive. You will have to go to the nearest center and print the picture on an A4 sheet. Then cut it to size and stick it on cardboard for convenience. Template for butterfly from a plastic bottle is ready. You can perform the next step.
Transfer image to plastic
A two-liter bottle before making crafts needs to be prepared. The container must be clean, without a sticker or adhesive residue. Before making butterflies with your own hands from a plastic bottle, you need to cut off the bottom and neck. All that remains is a flat part, which is cut on one side in a straight line.
The prepared piece of plastic needs to be attached to a cardboard template and the image should be transferred to transparent or colored plastic. It is most convenient to do this with a marker or felt-tip pen, since neither a pen nor a pencil leaves traces on slippery material. To prevent the butterfly image from moving during operation, it is necessary to fasten the two parts together. This is done with paper clips or office clothespins.
Contours can be drawn with either a black marker or color, depending on the intended pattern. Then, with a sharp scissor, a butterfly is cut out around the perimeter, it is especially necessary to act carefully in the area of the antennae and trunk. These are the thinnest details that can be easily cut off and ruin the whole craft.
Edge fusion
After the cut, the plastic has sharp edges with burrs. With further work, this can hurt the master, so it is better to melt the edges of the plastic. In this case, use either a hot iron or a hot metal rod. It’s easier to work with the iron, you just need to gently draw the edge of the crafts along its surface. But this is convenient only when the surface of the plastic is almost flat or rounded.
If on a craft a patterned figure with many bends, then it is more convenient to use a rod heated on fire. You can take a knitting needle, but then you have to hold it with a napkin so as not to get burned. It is most convenient to use an awl and a candle. The heated awl is held by the handle and, touching the edges, process any bends.
Thus, round holes can be burned. However, you need to act carefully. It must be remembered that the longer you touch the plastic with a hot awl, the larger the hole will be. They can be melted in the center on the body of the butterfly, and on the wings.
Product coloring
If a child does the work, then gouache paints are used to paint butterflies from plastic bottles with their own hands. Before work, explain to the preschooler what you need to draw without water, otherwise the whole image will spread out. A brush should be taken thin, natural. Dip it in water only for the first time or in case of a color change. After each wash, brush should be blotted with a napkin so that no liquid remains on it. So that the child can draw all the elements of the craft, you need to select a template with large details.
Adult craftsmen, when painting butterflies from a plastic bottle with their own hands (a step-by-step explanation is available in the article), use different nail polishes. Now on sale there are a variety of colors, both with sparkles, and without them.
The application of bright golden sparkles around the perimeter of the image looks beautiful. Paints must be combined correctly to make the butterfly beautiful and original. Before painting, you can pin down the body of the insect with your finger and bend the edges up. So the butterfly will turn out voluminous, and the finished craft will look more spectacular.
Torso
Of course, the body can simply be distinguished by indentation. However, many people like to decorate it with beads. To do this, you need to use a wire, on which small parts are worn alternately. The head of a butterfly can be made of a larger bead and a different color.
In the article, we examined in detail how to make a butterfly from a plastic bottle with our own hands. As you can see, work on the craft takes a little time, and the materials are the simplest that can be found in every family without leaving home. Try to create your own craft, starting with the simplest.