Lifecycle Papercraft

Okay, I'm changing gears here. I decided to try blogging about the papercrafts I do for Butterfly Gardener magazine. They have a section called "Instars" in which they publish kids activities. I have done about a dozen papercrafts for them. I keep worrying that I will run out of ideas, but so far so good.

For the next issue, I am trying to do a lifecycle papercraft. I like to keep the crafts simple and just use things most people have around the house. In this case, just paper, scissors and tape will be needed to complete the craft. For me to create it, I will also need a pencil.

My first prototype is very simple. Just two strips of paper with ears sticking up. Then I drew the four stages of the life cycle on on the ears: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, adult. When taped together, the whole lifecyle makes a sort of crown that can sit on a table. This is all very crude, but I think the idea is a good one. The hard part is going to be making pretty drawings.

Usually I get a two page spread in the magazine. That means I get one page for the pattern, and one page to explain how to put it together and to show a photo of the finished product. My pattern, therefor, has to fit on a single page. I was thought the "ears" might not be big enough if both strips had to be on one page, but I think the size of the strips and ears is fine. In fact, I think the proportions work out very nicely.