Butterfly & Dragonfly Pom Pom Magnets

Guest blog post by Anika from Little Free Monkeys.

I am so happy to be here at Ana’s blog to share my fun Pom Pom magnet tutorial for the kids!

I love doing crafts with my daughter — especially the quick and easy type that provide tons of fun while my very naughty toddler boy takes a nap.  Some of our favorite crafts include this fun hairband and valentine’s wreath.

Anytime we’re crafting, my goal is always to keep the number of supplies to a basic few and use them for multiple crafts. That way we don’t end up buying a ton of supplies for every project we do.

In the spirit of Spring, we decided to make a dragonfly and butterfly magnet. Not only is it a super easy and quick craft, but it also includes magnets — something virtually every kid likes to play with!

What’s even more fun is when kids can make their own magnets like these pom pom ones.

You can also easily extend this to make a caterpillar or frog…the possibilities are endless. The best part is that the magnet crafts can also be used as toys separate from a magnetic surface.

Materials for pom pom magnets

• Pom poms (various sizes and colors)
• Craft sticks
• Pipe cleaner/chenille stems
• Googley eyes
• Magnets (see note in step 5)
• Quick dry glue

How to Make Pom Pom Magnets

Step 1

Start with the craft stick and glue the pom poms in a row. Use a larger one for for the head and then smaller sizes for the body. Use any colors you like.

Step 2

For the butterfly, twist the chenille stems into M-shapes to create the wings. Insert and glue the ends of the wings onto the craft stick between the pom poms. For the dragonfly, make four little teardrop shaped wings and glue.

Step 3

Glue the googley eyes to the head. You can also add any pom pom decorations on the wings. My daughter added little rainbow pom poms all around the butterfly’s wing. You could also twist in some colorful chenille stems between the wings to add more color and decorations.

Step 4

Cut one chenille stem and twist them to create the antenna for the dragonfly. Glue to top of the head.

Step 5

Add the magnet to the bottom of the craft stick.

Note: I had used an adhesive backed magnet which came off a few hours later. I ended up using some superglue to reattach it. I think in future I would pass up the magnetic strips with adhesives and get the round ceramic magnets and glue them directly using super glue or hot glue. This will be a step for the grown ups though.

Thats it! The beautiful and colorful pom pom butterfly and dragonfly magnets are ready! Both the kids loved “role-playing” with the magnets on their magnetic chalkboard and just pretending to fly them around the house.

Anika blogs at Little Free Monkeys where she shares all the projects in her life – from woodworking to little crafts with the kids as she works on her biggest and most important project of all – creating a warm and loving home for her best friend/husband and her 2 “little monkeys” (5 year old girl and 2 year old boy).