Clothes Peg Dragonfly
Welcome to Week 3 of our free virtual summer camp! Today we are going to be making dragonflies out of clothes pegs. This is an easy and fun crafts and kids can get as creative as they like when decorating them. And not only are they fun to make, but you can use them afterwards to – gather branches in a vase and clip on your dragonflies for some colourful seasonal decor, use them to hang up drawings or postcards on a line, or clip them on to a ribbon when wrapping up a gift for a little personal touch.
Who is this activity suitable for?
This is another really easy activity that anyone can join in with. Older kids will be able to do all of it themselves, younger kids may need some assistance with drawing and cutting out the wings but can join in with painting the pegs and decorating the wings. I’ve recorded a short 30 second video to show how the clothes peg dragonflies are made, and if you scroll further down I’ve also included a step-by-step guide with photos.
Here’s what you’ll need to have ready:
- wooden clothes peg (the kind with the spring in the middle)
- paint – we used acrylic paint as it has good coverage
- paint brush
- coloured card
- pencil
- scissors
- glue stick
- black pen
- googly eyes (optional)
- small twigs (optional)
- empty jam jar (optional
Here’s the video to show you what to do…
And here are the step-by-step instructions…
Step 1: Paint the clothes peg. We clipped ours to a small twig so that we could paint them from all sides without waiting for one side to dry first. Then we stuck the twigs in a jam jar while the pegs dried. Paint all around the pegs but DON’T paint inside the bit where they clip together otherwise they will get stuck shut when the paint dries!
Step 2: While the paint is drying, get started on the wings. Cut out a wing shape from coloured card. The narrow bit in the middle of the wings should be no bigger than the bit where of your clothes peg that clips together. If you want to make sure both sides of your wings are the same, you can fold the card in half and sketch out one side of the wings, then cut out both layers together. The fold should be where the middle of the wings will be.
Step 3: Decorate the wings. We chose to cut our coloured circles and stick them on. You could cut out any other shapes you like, or you could pens or crayons to decorate them instead – anything goes!
Step 4: Dab some glue in the middle of the wings on the TOP side of the wings. Then place the wings in between the clip on parts of the clothes peg, and press together. We found that if you fold up a piece of scrap card and place it in between the clothes peg, it gives you a bit more leverage to press the peg together and make the wings stick to the wood.
Step 5: Cut out a circle of card for the head. We drew around the lid of our glue stick to get it perfectly round. You can make it the same colour as the body or the wings, or another colour altogether to make it even more colourful. Stick on a pair of google eyes if you some, otherwise just draw on eyes and a mouth with a black pen.
Step 6: Stick the head on to the top of the clothes peg. Voila! One cute dragon fly.
If you enjoyed today’s activity, please feel free to leave a comment or tag me in on Twitter and Instagram. And in case you missed it, check out our other summer camp crafts. Remember to use the hashtag #BearAndFoxSummerCamp if you are sharing any photos!
[line]
All Summer Camp activities are free to make them accessible to as many people as possible. However, if you enjoy the activities and are able to, you can support me with a donation on Ko-fi. Just hit the button below. Every little helps and is much appreciated. Thank you.
