Brighten up your space with an adorable plastic bottle butterfly. This recycled craft is SO FUN to make! Who knew you could create such a pretty butterfly from a recycled bottle?!
Use our free butterfly templates (find the links below!) and some paint markers to breathe new life into an everyday soda bottle. Transform your recycled pop bottle into a colourful butterfly. It’s a great spring and summer craft for the whole family!
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a small commission which helps us run this website.
How to Make a Plastic Bottle Butterfly
These butterflies made out of plastic bottles are so fun to make! Choose your favourite butterfly pattern and decorate it with coloured paint markers.
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
Step 2: Cut a rectangle from the plastic bottle
Step 3: Place the plastic over a butterfly outline
Helpful Tips:
- Make sure you mirror the colours on the butterfly’s wings, creating the same pattern on each side.
- Be very careful not to touch the wet paint as you’re coloring or while it’s drying, because it smudges very easily when wet. If this happens, use a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to remove the paint smudge. Then wipe with water and dry with a paper towel before adding more paint to that area.
- If your butterfly has any sharp edges on it use a nail file or fine grit sandpaper to smooth it out.
Where can I find templates to make a plastic bottle butterfly?
There are 16 butterfly template pages and 13 butterfly coloring pages for you to choose from. We used butterfly coloring page #7, found under the “Group of Butterflies” section.
You can definitely draw your own butterfly if you’d like, but a template makes it really easy to create a butterfly that’s identical on both sides!
What bottle is best for making this plastic bottle butterfly craft?
We recommend using a 2 liter soda bottle. These bottles are a nice size and the plastic is thin and flexible, making them easy to cut.
You can make 2 small butterflies, or 1 medium sized butterfly, from a 2 liter bottle. 1 liter bottles would probably also work well.
Whatever flexible plastic bottle you have in your recycling will work, but we do recommend using a clear bottle that has flat sides for the best looking butterfly.
What markers are best for coloring a plastic bottle butterfly?
We used oil based paint markers. They cover the plastic really well and they go on super smooth. Acrylic paint pens would probably work as well.
You can also use regular permanent markers (like coloured Sharpies). These markers create colours that are a bit see-through (see our “stained glass” snowflake suncatcher for an example).
We don’t recommend using washable markers. They will work, but the colour beads up on the plastic and doesn’t look very good.
Have fun making this butterfly craft with wings that follow the curve of the bottle! These whimsical bottle butterflies are the perfect art project to go along with a butterfly lesson at school, and they’re also a fun rainy day craft for home.
Here’s even more butterfly craft ideas:
Flapping Butterfly Craft
Beaded Pipe Cleaner Butterflies
Coffee Filter Butterflies
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
