Arts and crafts are a great way to spend a productive day indoors with your kids. There are so many fun projects that you can make together but getting your kids engaged with these creative activities is the key.
If your kid loves Harry Potter or magical creatures, they’re sure to love making these bowtruckles! These cute creatures first appeared in the Fantastic Beasts franchise and quickly became fan favorites.
Making a DIY bowtruckle is quick, easy, and fun! We have full step-by-step instructions and an adoption certificate to complete at the end.
What Is A Bowtruckle?
Bowtruckles first appeared in the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. They look like stick insects but these magical creatures are so much more!
They’re peaceful animals and as they look like they are made from twigs and leaves, spotting them in their forest habitats can be very difficult.
DIY Bowtruckle
We’ll give you step-by-step instructions on how to make one and list all of the materials that you need.
Materials
Four pipe cleaners/craft stems in green
Two 8-yard skeins of light green embroidery floss or yarn
Two small beads in a dark color
Two fake plant leaves
Craft wire
Pliers
Brown marker
You may only need one skein of green yarn but we recommend buying two just in case you need a little extra for your bowtruckle.
For the plant leaves, we recommend using silk or plastic leaves. We don’t recommend using real leaves as these will quickly rot.
For the craft wire, you can use a 20-gauge wire.
Instructions
Now, let’s look at how to make our bowtruckles!
Step One
We’ll begin by making the bodies of the bowtruckles.
Take three of the green pipe cleaners and twist them together from the top to halfway down. The bottom half of the three should be left untwisted as these will become the legs of the bowtruckle.
However, you should fold in the sharp tips of these ends so that they don’t scratch you!
Step Two
Next, we’ll make the arms.
Take the fourth and remaining pipe cleaner and fold this in half. You should then twist it around the middle of the bowtruckle’s torso. By this, we mean the middle of the section that has the three pipe cleaners twisted together.
Step Three
Using your pliers and some craft wire, you can now make the fingers of your bowtruckle.
The bowtruckle in Fantastic Beasts has three fingers on one arm and two on the other, but if you want to make things easier you can just make two fingers for each arm.
To make the fingers, cut two small pieces from your craft wire. You should then use the pliers to fold the craft wire to make the fingers. If you’re making two fingers, simply fold over the ends so that you get a wide U-shape.
Making three fingers is a little trickier as you will need to add an extra fold in the middle of the wire for the additional finger.
Once you have shaped the fingers you can attach them to your bowtruckle arms. You can do this by folding the end of your pipe cleaner arms over the wire.
Step Four
Our next step is to add the eyes to your bowtruckle. To do this, you will need your dark-colored beads and your yarn.
Thread the two beads onto the yarn. Position the beads near the top of the body and tie the thread around the body to keep them in place. Don’t worry if the beads are a little loose as they’ll be wrapped more firmly in place in a later step.
Step Five
Take your fake leaves and attach these to the very top of the bowtruckle’s head. Think of them like floppy rabbit ears and this should help you position them.
The method of fixing your leaves will depend on their format. If they have wires, you can wrap the wire around the bowtruckle. If they don’t, you may need to glue them instead. You will be able to secure them more effectively in the next step.
Step Six
To make sure that your bowtruckle has the same smooth texture throughout its arms, body, legs, and fingers, we will now wrap it in yarn. This will also help to cover up any sharp edges of the pipe cleaners.
Take a long piece of your yarn and floss and wrap it around the frame of the bowtruckle. Start at the top of the head and work down the body and one of the legs.
You can then work back up the leg to get a second and up the body again. Don’t worry about the arms at the moment!
When you wrap your bowtruckle, be careful that you don’t cover the eyes. This is a good opportunity to fix the eyes and leaves in place, however. You can wrap the body with several layers if you wish.
Step Seven
You can now wrap the rest of the bowtruckle in the same manner. Wrap the third leg, the arms, and the fingers.
Cut the excess yarn and use a little bit of glue to keep it in place.
Step Eight
With the bowtruckle wrapped, you can add a little mouth with a brown marker.
Printable Magical Creature Adoption Certificate
Now that you’ve made your bowtruckle, why not make the adoption formal? This is a great way to finish the craft program and your kids are sure to love having their own adoption certificate for their newly made bowtruckle.
Make sure they pick a suitable name for their new friend first!
Once they have a name, simply print off the adoption certificate and complete the required fields.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we gave full instructions on how to make a DIY bowtruckle. We hope you enjoy your new friend!
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