Water Bottle Lightning Bug Craft

Summer is the time of staying up late, giggles, and catching fireflies.

This lightning bug craft is one of our favorite recycled crafts so far. 

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We had so much fun catching fireflies and making our fingerprint firefly craft, that we just had to make some lightning bugs that would actually light up at night.

This simple kids craft is fun to do before a camping trip.  Then you can use it for a nightlight!

Lightning Bug Craft

To make your own glowing firefly friend, you will need:

• an empty water bottle or individual sized pop bottle
• 3 whole pipe cleaners (legs) and 1 half pipe cleaner (antennae)
• black construction paper
• black tissue paper (ours was actually very dark blue)
• wiggly eyes
• 1 glow stick
• white school glue
• hot glue gun

Start by wrapping the 3 pipe cleaners around the bottle, making sure to twist them tightly into place.

Bend the tips to become the lightning bug’s feet.  (You may need to help the youngest crafts twist the pipe cleaners tight enough to stay secure.)

Use a paintbrush to apply glue to the bottle, up around the bottle’s neck and in between all the firefly’s legs.

Wrap the tissue paper around the bottle to give your firefly a dark body.

Cut black construction paper wings and use your glue to add them to the back of the lightning bug craft.

Finally, twist the half pipe cleaner around the bottle’s neck (we used a sparkly one) and hot glue the eyes onto the sides of the bottle’s opening.

Once the lightning bugs dry, add glow sticks to make them glow.  (You will need to bend them a bit to make them fit inside the bottles.)

Since there is no lid on the bottle, it is easy to swap out glow sticks when needed.

This lightning bug craft makes a fun nightlight for sleepovers or to take camping.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Glowing Lightning Bug Craft from a Plastic Egg
• Awesome Camp Crafts
• Super Simple Water Bottle Sun Catcher Craft