I still remember seeing my first big dragonfly when I was a girl. I was totally captivated by its gorgeous iridescence! This Recycled Milk Jug Dragonfly Craft uses a sharpie and alcohol colouring method to give a stunning tie dye effect to the dragonfly’s wings. Such a pretty insect craft for Spring, Summer and Earth Day.
We always have an abundance of plastic milk jugs and I love finding new ways to get creative with them. Their semi-transparence lends them so well to suncatchers and insect crafts. We loved using them to make gorgeous Jewelled Hearts Suncatchers, Cute Rocking Chicks, and even some fun Easter Baskets!
I first came across the sharpie and alcohol colouring method being used by the lovely Jackie from Happy Hooligans. She made some gorgeous tie dyed bookmarks from old plastic vinegar bottles and I’ve been wanting to try the idea ever since!
This insect dragonfly craft seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment with sharpies and rubbing alcohol ourselves and I just love how they turned out.
Recycled Milk Jug Dragonfly Craft Tutorial Using Sharpies and Rubbing Alcohol
Dragonfly Craft Supplies
- Large Plastic Milk Jugs
- Sharpies US / UK
- Rubbing Alcohol US / UK
- Glue Gun US / UK
How To Make A Recycled Milk Jug Dragonfly Craft
We started our dragonfly craft by looking at photographs of real dragonflies to get an idea of the proportions and body parts of this fascinating insect.
Using our plastic milk jug we cut out a long rectangle for the body (head, thorax and abdomen) and two sets of wings each about 1 and a half times the length of the body.
Next we coloured in the body in stripes with bright Sharpie pens.
The wings were coloured more randomly. We chose different colour sets for each dragonfly.
Then we followed Jackie’s instructions to apply the rubbing alcohol to create a lovely mottled tie dye look.
We finished off our homemade dragonflies’ wings by drawing on some veins with the Sharpies.
To make the dragonfly’s body we tightly rolled the plastic rectangle and used a glue gun to hold it in place. We tried to make it slightly wider at the head end and narrower at the tail end.
Then we glued on a pair of forewings and hindwings and some cute googly eyes.
Lastly our dragonfly craft needed its 6 insect legs so we snipped some out from the milk jug plastic, coloured them black with a Sharpie and glue gunned them in place.
The results are stunning and I just adore how iridescent our milk jug dragonfly craft looks!
I’ve teamed up with some other wonderful kid craft bloggers to bring you this milk jug dragonfly craft. Do check out their lovely recycled insect crafts too.
- Recycled Bee Craft
- Recycled Lid Caterpillar Art
- Cardboard Tube Grasshopper
- Butterfly Wall Hanging
- Recycled CD Ladybug
- Egg Carton Bee
More Fun Insect and Animal Crafts To Try:
