DIY Mini BUTTERFLY Kite | How to Make a Tiny Kite

I used to own a tiny little kite years and years ago and I thought it was fun, so I decided I'd do something a bit different to the diamond design I had then and create a butterfly!

You can make a little kite in many different shapes and designs because the concept of a kite is very simple. It basically needs to be light enough and create enough drag.

I hope you enjoy this project!

- Tissue Paper

- Inkjet Printer

- Glue Stick

- Cocktail Sticks or Fine Wire; I used 26g metallic paper-covered wire which was sold as a kind of floristry wire.

- PVA Glue & a Stronger Clear Glue; I used UHU all-purpose adhesive.

- Scissors

- Cheap Paintbrush

- Strong Thread; I used size 8 crochet thread.

- Bobbins or Small Pieces of Stiff Card; for winding the thread around.

- A Sheet of Regular Printer Paper

- Something to Protect Your Work Surface

First you'll need to apply glue from a glue stick all around the edge of a regular piece of A4 printer paper. I've seen people use tape instead for this, so choose what you prefer.

Place a sheet of tissue paper over the top and press down onto the glue. Try and make the paper lie as flat as possible. Your tissue paper likely has a shiny side, and this should be placed face down.

Cut off the excess tissue paper so it's the same size as the printer paper.

Print the butterfly design onto the paper (I used standard quality), and then leave the ink to thoroughly dry.

Note: It's best if you have a printer that has a rear feed for thicker paper so that the paper isn't being curled around the rollers.

Cut around each of the butterflies as shown, to release them from the printer paper.

In the last photo you can see what the shiny side looks like, and you'll notice that the ink has gone all of the way through the paper so the image is on both sides.

If you're using fine wire, you simply need to cut 5 pieces as shown; one for the centre, and 4 for the wings. Make sure the pieces are the same length on each side so it's symmetrical.

Use very minimal PVA glue to hold these in place (on the non-shiny side of a butterfly).

Use a paintbrush to apply the glue.

Add a very small amount of PVA around the edge of the butterfly, then place another butterfly on top, shiny-side-up.

Note that I didn't cut the butterfly shapes out first, which made it more difficult to line them up...hence why they end up mis-aligned! So I recommend cutting the butterfly shapes out first before doing this step.

Note 1: the glue will make some ink bleed through to the underside of the butterfly, so place it onto a wipe-clean surface until it dries.

Note 2: If the butterfly stick to the surface a little, carefully take a piece of printer paper and slide it slowly underneath until you can lift it up.

Same as with the wire; cut out 5 pieces from cocktail sticks and glue them (with very little glue) onto the non-shiny side of a butterfly.

Make sure all the pieces are symmetrical.

Apply a tiny bit more PVA around the edge and place another butterfly on top, shiny-side-up.

Press the edges together and leave to dry completely.

Cut out a rectangle of tissue paper so that the height is roughly 3/4 the height of the central body of the butterfly.

Fold this in half, then cut into a triangle shape.

Glue the end of your thread inside this triangle and glue closed.

Leave to dry.

Glue the edge of the triangle to the centre of the butterfly. Use a stronger clear glue to do this.

Also use the stronger glue to attach a couple of streamers to the tail. Mine were approx. 24 cm long.

Leave a few metres (at least) of thread to play with, and then cut it. Wind this thread around a bobbin or small rectangle of stiff card.

And now it's ready to fly :)

As soon as the weather is acceptable, I'll put up a video of it in flight/

I hope you enjoyed this project.