This colorful painted paper butterfly craft for kids is absolutely gorgeous. This art activity uses a super fun technique with black glue and watercolor paint. Children will love creating these faux stained glass butterflies for spring, summer or any time of year!

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One art technique my kids can’t get enough of is painting with black glue and watercolors. We’ve used a similar technique when making our symmetrical monarch butterfly craft (with directions or both younger and older kids) and when making our colorful tie craft for Father’s Day.

For projects using this method, you’ll need black glue. You can either make your own black glue or actually buy it already black!

How to Make Black Glue

Take a bottle of white liquid glue. Remove the top and pour some out so you’ll have room to mix and shake. Add some black paint to your white glue in the opened bottle and stir with something long and skinny (like a coffee stirrer). Keep adding black paint until you like the final color.  Put the top back onto your glue bottle and you’re ready to create!

This project is perfect for spring or summer and goes great with many children’s books, especially The Very Hungry Caterpillar (for younger kids) and The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco (for older children).

Painted Paper Butterfly Craft for Kids

Materials for Painted Paper Butterfly Craft for Kids

• White cardstock or art paper
• Scissors
• Black glue (See directions about for making your own black glue.)
• Paint Brush
• Watercolors (You can use a watercolor palette or liquid watercolors. These are our absolute favorite liquid watercolors! We use them for all kinds of art projects (like painting with pipettes or painting with cotton swabs– really fun process art activities), creating artwork with salt (super cool) and to dye things like slime.)
• Free printable butterfly template

Directions for Painted Butterfly Craft for Kids

1. Print the butterfly template onto white cardstock or art paper. (We love this art paper– super inexpensive and holds up well to various paints.)

2. Trace the template with your black glue bottle, going over each line.

3. Let the glue to dry completely.

4. Paint the butterflies with your watercolor paint inside the areas formed by the dried black glue.  The black glue will keep the colors from spreading into other areas of the butterfly.

5. Allow the paint to dry completely.

6. Cut out your butterfly.

These colorful painted paper butterflies look gorgeous hanging from the ceiling or around the walls! You can even make smaller versions to decorate homemade greeting cards or to add to your own artwork.