Create a Twilight Fireflies Paper Collage with a 3D textural effect using our printable template and some basic craft materials.
It makes super pretty wall art to decorate for Summer!
Last week we shared a cute and easy fingerprint firefly jar. This is the second project in our firefly series, a torn paper collage.
It’s been inspired by our popular light-up cereal box firefly art project, only this version is less messy and complicated so it suits working with a group of kids. It’s a bit easier too.
The fireflies’ wings and the silhouette grass pop out from the page. This gives the finished collage a 3D effect and also creates texture.
The insects are a little fiddly to cut out for younger kids, so this project is recommended for ages 7+. Younger kids could make it with some adult help though.
Either card stock or construction paper is fine to use, but the example craft has been created using card stock.
How to make a Twilight Fireflies paper collage
You Will Need
- Card stock or construction paper in three suitable colours to create the twilight gradient,eg: Deep blue, dark purple and bright blue
- White card stock or paper to print on
- Black card stock or paper (1 5cm/2” strip per collage)
- Markers
- Yellow highlighter
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Fine-tipped paintbrush
- White acrylic paint
- The template, available from our printables store and TPT store
How To
Print the template to white paper or card stock.
Colour the fireflies. The head and top wings can be any colour, but stick to yellow for the lower abdomen and lower wings. Colour the firefly lights (the circles) in yellow highlighter.
Cut the shapes out.
Use the darkest sheet of your coloured paper as the background and keep it whole. Tear strips stips of the bright blue and purple to create a gradient. There is no set size, but the brightest colour needs to be higher than 5cm/2” in order to be seen above the grass.
Use the strip provided in the template to cut a 5cm (2”) black strip. If working with a group of kids, it is probably easier to guillotine a set of black strips and have them ready to go. Fringe this to create grass and glue it to the collage over the lightest blue strip. Use your fingers to curl the grass for a more 3D effect.
Layer the strips to get a twilight gradient and glue them into place. To get the gradient to your liking, you can tear a bit more from the strips and adjust it to suit.
Glue the highlighter circles onto sky, scattering them randomly across all three colours.
Fold the fireflies’ wings. Glue a firefly onto each circle so it sits in the centre of each circle with the wings uplifted.
Use a paintbrush and white acrylic paint to dot stars on the top part of the sky.
More Summer art ideas
- Create garden art using chalk and nature
- Make a sunset boat mosaic using our template
- Check out our 3D Ocean doodle art collection, available as separate projects or in a value bundle
