This week's fun activity... COFFEE FILTER BUTTERFLIES

With flowers in bloom, bees, moths, birds, butterflies and other insects will be visiting those plants to feed and pollinate!   You might see that the insects visiting the flowers can be just as colorful as the flowers.   Butterflies in particular have a wide variety of colors.  They’re brightly colored to attract friends; some even have colors to act as a warning for birds to stay away!   For this week’s activity, let’s make our own brightly colored butterfly!

Materials: Coffee Filters (2 per butterfly) Washable Markers Fuzzy Stick Pipe Cleaner (1 per butterfly) Spray Bottle or Eyedropper for water

Step 1 - Flatten Lay the coffee filters on a flat surface and flatten them out into a circle.

Step 2 – Color or Decorate Using washable markers, decorate your coffee filter circles.  Once your design is complete, we’ll drop water onto the filter to blend the colors together.   Tip: colors next to each other will blend together, so if you don’t want that, leave a bit of uncolored space between your colors.   Also, dark colors will overpower other colors!

Step 3 – Water When you finish your design, use a spray bottle or eyedropper to lightly mist or apply water to the coffee filter.   You can also wet your fingers and “flick” water on it, or use a small spoon to drop water on the filter.   Put your coffee filters in a shallow pan or on a waterproof plate to contain the colors!

Step 4 - Dry Remove the coffee filters from any water and let them dry.  You can place them in the sun or put them on top of a paper towel to speed up the drying time.

Step 5 - Fold Fold each of the coffee filters in half, so that you have two half-circles.

Step 6 – Arrange Place the coffee filter half-circles so that the curved sides face towards each other.   The flat sides should be at the top and the bottom.

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‌	Step 7 – Pinch Pinch and scrunch your coffee filters in the middle to give your wings some texture.   For a different look, you can also “accordion fold” the filters.  Just remember to fluff your wings when you’re finished!

Step 8 – Tie! Wrap a fuzzy stick pipe cleaner around the pinched middles of your coffee filters and twist it to secure it to the “wings."   Leave enough at the top so your butterfly has antennae!

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YOUR FBBG MEMBERSHIPS  We are renewing memberships remotely. You will receive a temporary card in the mail until we are able to send out membership packets. If you have any questions about memberships, please contact Dkoepsel@fbbg.org You can purchase a membership on-line by clicking here .

We’d love to see your creativity! Tag us on:  Facebook ( Friends of Boerner Botanical Gardens )  Twitter (@FBBG) or Instagram (friendsofbbg)  to show off your Coffee Filter Butterflies or any of our weekly activities!

Continue to watch for our weekly fun activities for all ages to enjoy!