With this dragonfly craft, kids can turn ordinary Starbucks stir sticks into delicate, glittered butterflies to hang in a window or to make a mobile with.
I know it’s not exactly dragonfly season but I wanted to share this adorable, easy craft before the snow flies. If I wait much longer, I’ll have to hold off until Spring when everyone will be making bug and insect crafts again.
We made these glittery dragonflies on a whim one day when one of the preschoolers spotted a jar of Starbucks stir sticks in amongst the craft supplies.
I always keep a stash of coffee stir sticks in the craft room. When I’m in Starbucks, I usually ask if I can take a few extra home for my daycare kids to craft with. They’re always great about it.
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We use the stir sticks for mixing paints, applying glue, stirring concoctions, and of course, for crafting. I like that Starbucks’ stir sticks are longer and more delicate than regular wooden craft sticks. Look at the button snowflakes we made with them last year. Aren’t they pretty?
Anyway, on this day, Miss 4 asked if she could paint some of the stir sticks, and while she was painting, we thought about what we might make with them.
We played around with the sticks, laying them this way and that, and we came up with these simple dragonflies.
One vertical stir stick serves as the dragonfly’s body, and two criss-crossed stir sticks serve as our dragonfly’s wings.
They’re really cute, don’t you think?
I think our dragonflies would look great suspended in a window or strung into a mobile to hang in a bedroom.
To make this easy dragonfly craft, you’ll need:
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- Starbucks stir sticks (you can order similar ones here)
- paint
- glitter
- paintbrush
- glue
- googly eyes
- glue gun
We began by painting our stir sticks, using several different colours of acrylic craft paint.
To dry them quickly, I gave them a blast with the hairdryer (one of my favourite tricks when I’m crafting with kids).
Next, we assembled our dragonflies, securing the stir sticks in place with a glue gun. You can use regular white glue to stick your dragonflies together, but I felt that they’d hold better with hot glue. We used a low heat glue gun so she could do that step herself.
You can read more about kids and glue guns here if you’re interested in introducing glue guns to your kids or students.
Then, we brushed a layer of white glue onto our dragonflies’ bodies and wings, and sprinkled them generously with fine glitter.
Don’t you just love how glitter makes everything prettier? As you may know, I used to be a total glitterphobe but I’ve really come a long way. Glitter cleans up easily with a damp cloth and the dust-buster, and I’m finding that little bit of mess is worth it for the sparkle and shimmer that we get in return.
I know.
You’re thinking I’ve lost my mind, aren’t you. Haha!
Life is short. Embrace the glitter.
The next photo is a bit dark because I wanted it to capture the shimmer of the glitter.
We finished by gluing a couple of googly eyes onto each dragonfly.
Miss 4 enjoyed flying her dragonflies around the backyard.
With some fine thread, you could easily turn these dragonflies into a mobile to hang in your child’s room. I would probably use a couple of sticks from the yard to make the mobile – similar to how we made our pinecone mobiles last month.
And if you’re wondering about the flowered tiara that Miss 4 is wearing, we made that earlier in the day. It took just a few minutes and she wore it all day long. She said it made her feel like a fairy-princess. You’ll find the instructions to our flowered tiara here.
A flowered tiara, and some glittery dragonfly friends. It doesn’t get much better than that when you’re 4.
If you enjoyed our stir stick dragonfly craft, you might also like:
Craft Stick Ballerina Ornament
Craft Stick Santa, Elf and Reindeer
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. In 1997, Jackie stepped out of the corporate world to start a family and to open her own home daycare. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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