Friends, I've got a quick and easy craft project for you and hopefully I've given you enough time to do it before Easter on Sunday. I was able to whip up about 15 of these cute candy butterflies last night in about thirty minutes.
The idea came from Pinterest, of course, but when I clicked on the picture to take me to the original source, I found the instructions weren't in English. So I had to figure it out on my own. Wasn't hard though.
First, I gathered my supplies. If you're a crafter at all, there's a good chance you could have most, if not all, of these on hand already. Cute scrapbook paper (I used less than a fourth of a piece), clear bags (found mine at JoAnn's; they're Wilton brand), googly eyes, pipe cleaners, glue stick, clothespins. Not pictured is the candy. I used M&Ms but any small colorful candy would work.
The first thing I did was flip my scrapbook paper over and trace around the edge of a clothespin. You can see I just lined it up in the corner and traced the remaining two edges.
I figured it'd be easiest to go ahead and cut a long strip to the right width, so I grabbed a ruler and took my line down further. After cutting out the first strip (from the clothespin I had traced), I used it as a pattern to cut all the others. I was not a perfectionist about straight cuts at all and you can't tell.
I found the easiest way to stick the paper to the clothespin was to rub the glue stick onto the clothespin and then stick the paper on top, as opposed to trying to rub the glue stick onto the tiny piece of paper (it just crumbled up when I did that).
The next step was adding the googly eyes. I wasn't sure if the glue stick was going to be strong enough to hold them on, but turns out it was. I just swiped the end of the clothespin with the glue stick and stuck them down. Make sure it's the end that open and closes.
Here are my googly eyed clothespins dressed and ready for wings!
Next, I took my bag and filled it with candy. It was trial and error before I figured out about the right amount to add. Oh, I did try ziploc bags and they do work, but they make much floppier wings and they take a lot more candy to fill up. These Wilton bags were perfect.
This is the part I wasn't sure about from just looking at the picture on Pinterest. Not sure how they did it, but all I did was lay my bag of candy down flat and fold the top edge over. The bag was pretty much folded in half.
Then I parted my sea of M&Ms down the center.
After that, it was just a matter of clipping that middle section of the bag with the clothespin. It's a tight snug fit which keeps the bag good and closed.
The finishing touch is definitely the antennae. I cut my pipe cleaners in half first so they wouldn't be too long. Then I folded it in half and curved the edges around a little bit.
Finally, I clipped the antennae into the mouth of the clothespin. Done!
I think they turned out really cute! (Cuter than some I've seen on Pinterest even!) I made blue, yellow, and pink antennae.
One last look at the finished product (sorry for the iPhone pics).
I made these for my niece and nephews, but then decided to make more so I could give them to my coworkers. They were a hit! Hey, adults like candy in cute packages too.
If you're looking for a little something to hand out to your kids' classmates or Sunday school class or whatever, these are perfect. (If they can have candy, that is.) And they take no time at all! (If you live near me and need some bags, give me a call. I bought a package of 100 and have plenty left over.) Obviously I chose to do these for Easter but I think the great thing about this craft is that, with different colored candy, scrapbook paper, and pipe cleaners, it can be done any time of year!