Bright and kid-friendly, this Pony Bead Butterfly Craft uses colorful pony beads and pipe cleaners to create sparkly butterfly wings with a twist-on body and curly antennae. Quick to prep, great for fine-motor practice, and perfect for classrooms, camps, or rainy-day crafting.

I love springtime. It’s like a fresh start! Everything starts to bloom, trees start turning green again, the air is crisp and cool, and beautiful little creatures, like butterflies, start buzzing to and fro.

That’s why I love fun and bright springtime crafts that the kids can create as everything outside gets fun and bright, too!

This pony bead butterfly craft is super simple and perfect for children of all ages. There’s no glueing, cutting, painting, or any other messy steps involved. You simply need some pony beads and pipe cleaners to create these fluttery friends.

I love to make these Spring Sugar Cookies whenever we make spring crafts too. There’s just endless fun once springtime rolls around!

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love This Craft

You only needs two supplies to make colorful pony bead butterflies – beads and pipe cleaners! This is a great option for a last minute craft session or when you need a really affordable craft to create.
These butterflies are a great craft idea for large classes or a craft session that has limited time. A bead butterfly only takes 5 minutes to make!
The activity of stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner is great for the development of fine motor skills.

Overhead Image of the Pony Bead Butterfly Craft Supplies

Materials Needed For Pony Bead Butterfly Craft

Pony Beads – The easiest option is to buy a large container of pony beads in various different colors. That way you’ll have plenty of colors to make your butterfly multi-colored. You can use any other type of bead that has a large enough hole to fit over the pipe cleaners.
Pipe Cleaners – You can use colored pipe cleaners or white pipe cleaners for this beaded pipe cleaner butterfly. I would recommend you stay away from the glittery pipe cleaners for this craft because they’re a little harder to work with.

How To Make A Beaded Butterfly

Grab two pipe cleaners of the same color and twist them together in the middle.
Begin stringing beads onto two of the ends of pipe cleaner and leave a third of an inch at the end. Twist the ends around the middle to create two beaded loops.
String beads on the other two pipe cleaner ends, leaving two inches on each end. Twist those pipe cleaners into the middle and leave the ends sticking up at the top to create attenae.
Curve the end of the pipe cleaners to make the antennas more curly. Then you’re all done!

Take two pipe cleaners and twist them together in the middle

String beads on two ends of the pipe cleaners and leave a little at the ends to tie into the middle of the pipe cleaners

Pro Tips

To hang your butterfly craft, tie some fishing line or a ribbon around the center and hang it on the wall or from the ceiling.
Create a magnet out of your beaded pipe cleaner butterfly by gluing a small magnet to the center of the backside of your butterfly.
These cute butterflies make great gift decorations! Use a piece of ribbon and tie a butterfly onto the handle of a gift bag or the ribbon on a gift box.
After you twist the two large loops to the center, if you have just a small piece left, wrap it around the center again. If the pieces are longer, just cut them off with scissors. Or, you can unwrap them and add more beads to fill up the leftover space.

Close up photo of a Completed Butterfly Craft

This precious little beaded pipe cleaner butterfly is such a fun spring craft as the days get brighter and longer. Go get some sunshine and make a fluttery friend or two!

Pony Bead Butterfly Craft

With only two supplies needed, this Pony Bead Butterfly Craft is so easy to make! Thread your pony beads onto pipe cleaners and form them into a butterfly.

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Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 5

Total Time: 5

Equipment

Instructions

Take two pipe cleaners and twist them together in the middle.
String beads together on two ends of the pipe cleaners, leaving about a third of an inch at the end of the pipe cleaners. Twist the ends of the pipe cleaners around the middle, so you end up with two large beaded loops.
String beads on the remaining two pipe cleaners leaving about 2 inches from the ends. Twist the pipe cleaners to the middle, with the remainder of the pipe cleaners sticking up at the top. Curve the tops of the two pipe cleaners to make your antennas.

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Classroom Use

This pony bead butterfly craft is perfect to use in a classroom setting. Give each child two pipe cleaners and a small bowl of beads, or put a large bowl of beads in the center of the table if they are seated in a group setting. You can create beaded butterflies and teach them about the life cycle of a butterfly.

You could also read a book like The Very Hungry Caterpillar or My, Oh My — A Butterfly.

More Spring Crafts You’ll Love

Want to make more butterflies? Check out this Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft, it is great for all ages with minimal prep or clean up.
If your spring ends up being way too rainy, bring the sunshine inside with this Rainbow Sun Craft. You only need 4 materials to make a colorful sun on a rainy day!
Do your kids love watching all the birds around spring? Then make this Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder together. Don’t forget to keep track of which birds you attract to your feeder!
This Handprint Butterfly is a wonderful keepsake craft as your kiddos grow. Do one every spring to see how they’ve grown.