Specimen Necklace Pendant

• Make a necklace pendant with a preserved butterfly. If you find a butterfly out in nature that has died, pin it to a piece of paper on a cork board to let it dry for two days. Glue a piece of white paper inside an empty tray necklace pendant and gently glue the butterfly face up on the paper. Mix some acrylic resin and hardener from an acrylic resin casting kit, according to the instructions in the kit. Pour the resin into the tray pendant so it completely covers the butterfly and let it harden for three days before putting it on a chain.
  
  

Tissue Paper Scales

• Print out a picture of a butterfly, or draw one yourself using a picture of a real butterfly as a reference. Cut out squares of tissue paper in different colors and make them very small--around 1/4 to 1/8 inches wide. Glue each group of colored tissue paper squares into the sections of the butterfly with a glue stick to give it colored scales. Start from the middle of each section and work your way out to overlap them like shingles on a roof. A real butterfly's wings are made of tiny delicate scales, so you are making a realistic butterfly as it would be seen under a magnifying glass.
  
  

Framed Specimen

• Place a butterfly specimen in a sealed plastic container on top of a damp cloth. Seal the container and let it sit for two days to get moisture back into the body and wings -- this makes it easier to pin the butterfly. Cut a piece of Styrofoam board so that it fits into a glass covered picture frame. Cut an indent into the middle of the board, just deep enough and long enough to fit the body of the butterfly. The body needs to fit into the slot so that the wings can lie flat against the board. Gently spread the wings, place the butterfly in the slot and pin its body and wings down with insect pins. Wait three days, remove the pins from the wings and place the Styrofoam board in the picture frame.
  
  

Metamorphosis Mobile

• Poke four holes, evenly spaced, around the outside edge of a paper plate with the tip of a pen. Draw, color and cut out a butterfly, about 3 or 4 inches wide and tie it a string about 1 foot long. Draw and cut out a chrysalis, which is the protective shell where the caterpillar transforms into the butterfly. Glue the chrysalis to a twig and tie the twig to a string. Draw, color and cut out a caterpillar. To make the project realistic refer to pictures of the species of butterfly so you know what its caterpillar form looks like. Draw and cut out a leaf with small dots on it to represent butterfly eggs and tie it to a string. Hang the strings from the holes in the paper plate and hang your butterfly life cycle mobile.