Caroline
On our latest trip to the library we picked up Leo the Lightning Bug. It’s a darling story about having confidence and believing in yourself. As a child I struggled with my own self-confidence so I love reading books to my children that act as a reminder for them to believe in themselves and their abilities. I especially love the concept in this book about “practicing” since we shouldn’t expect ourselves to excel in all things on our first try. We made this cute Lightning Bug Craft to go along with the story.
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Supplies you will need:
- 2 scoop sticks
- neon acrylic paint
- glow in the dark glitter glue
- paint brush
- 2 small wiggly eyes
- silver cupcake liner
- black permanent marker
- small piece of black cardstock paper
- scissors
- school glue
Tutorial:
1. Paint two scoops stick
Start by painting your two scoops stick. Paint one with the purple neon paint and half of the other one with the yellow neon paint. Paint the half with the scoop end. Once they are dry enough, add the glow in the dark glitter glue on top of the neon yellow paint and spread it around with a paint brush. Let the pieces dry completely. (Note: You can also try the acrylic glow in the dark paint included in the set instead of using the glitter glue. We went with the glitter glue to add some sparkle to ours.)
2. Make wings
Cut your silver cupcake liner to make the lightning bug wings. Start by folding the cupcake liner in half, then cut a wing shape out (making sure not to cut the folded edge). Unfold the liner and you will have your set of wings.
3. Glue wings to the sticks
Once your scoop sticks are dry, glue your wings to the neon yellow scoop stick. Then glue the purple scoop stick on top of the yellow scoop stick, with the scoop facing the opposite end. (See picture below.)
4. Glue on eyes and antennae, draw a mouth
Finish your Lightning Bug by drawing on a mouth with your black marker, gluing on wiggly eyes and gluing on two small black antennae cut from your black cardstock paper.
The added bonus to this craft is of course the fact that it can literally glow. Let it sit in the sun for a bit to charge and then take it into a dark room and see your Lightning Bug glow!
