Sponge butterfly craft - The Craft Train

Here is an easy sponge butterfly craft you can make from standard kitchen sponges plus a few other materials.

Sponge butterflies are a fun Spring craft idea for kids, and the finished butterflies make great fridge magnets. They’d make a cute handmade gift idea for mothers day too!

This craft was first published in 2013, and has been updated and re-shared for today’s audience.

You might also like our symmetrical butterfly squish art

Back when my kids were pre-schoolers, we created butterfly sponge prints for mothers day. Not only did we end up with handmade butterfly cards and wrap, we were also left with butterfly-shaped sponges.

My daughter had the bright idea of decorating the butterflies and turning them into a craft on their own. The paint-soaked butterflies took a few days to completely to dry out, so keep this in mind if you want to create painted butterflies. We also made ones with plain sponges straight out of the cupboard.

We decided to hot glue a magnet onto the back of our butterflies and use them to brighten up our kitchen fridge. You can also hot glue them to a dowel rod to create an easy butterfly stick puppet.

Sponge butterfly craft directions

You will need:

Sponges – one sponge makes two butterflies
Pipe cleaners
Elastic bands
Sequins and/or plastic gems
Glitter glue
Craft glue (tacky craft glue is best)
Optional: magnet and hot glue gun

How to:

Cut the kitchen sponge in half and tie in the centre with an elastic band.

Twist a pipe cleaner around it to create the butterfly’s body as shown. Leave a loop of pipe cleaner at bottom and top, and twist the pipe cleaner around a pencil to make curled antennae.

Then it’s time to decorate! We’ve used glitter glue to create patterns from spots and wiggly lines, and added sequins and plastic gems using craft glue to stick them on.