DIY Cat Toys

Bhim Solomon is Omlet’s junior guest writer, currently exploring fun activities to try with her two kittens Moonpie and Shadow Weaver, and introducing easy tricks you can try with your feline friends! In this article, Bhim talks you through the simple steps of making an origami butterfly for your cats.

DIY Cat Toys are fun for you to make and exciting for your cat to play with at home. Origami (the ancient Japanese art of paper folding) is an excellent way of making beautiful and quick cat toys. My cats love to chase butterflies in the garden, so I decided to make a butterfly out of origami (and I think the butterflies in the garden will be very relieved too). I noticed that my cats are much more interested in things that make a sound so I wanted my cat toy to have a jingle. Luckily from Easter I had saved a bell from a big Lindt chocolate bunny, it’s perfect for this project, maybe you have one too. Other things you’ll need are:

1. A stick
2. Some elastic or string
3. And of course some paper.

You can go on youtube to find origami how to videos, here is the link to the one I used for a butterfly if you would like to use it. If you don’t want curved wings you just don’t cut the edge. Also if you have an A4 paper you should follow the first step.

Origami tips

• Use thin paper as it’s easy to crease
• Watch the video through once and then follow on the second time
• Use the back of your nail or ruler to fold smoothly
• Fold neatly
• Use coloured paper and then draw your own pattern / eyes / words on it
• Patterned paper also looks great.
• You don’t need to have a square piece of paper, you can use a regular piece of A4 or Letter size, keep reading to find out how to make it into the perfect square…

First of all:

Collect your A4 piece of paper or if you have an origami square paper skip this step, fold diagonally across so that the corner that you folded touches the edge. Crease down the fold with the back of your nail. Then cut the extra bit off. Now you have a square piece of paper and you can start making your butterfly.

Secondly:

Unfold that crease and fold diagonally the opposite way. Open out, then fold vertically, unfold and fold horizontally. I’m not going to write all the instructions because it’s easier to watch the video.

Making the wings

If we skip a bit to the cutting for the wings I wanted to have a rounded end so I cut my wings but you can leave them to get a pointed edge. After that, unfold the wings and fold the top edges to touch the middle line. Next, flip the paper over and bring the bottom corner up and fold over the top line, with about one cm above.

Turn back over and fold over. This is the head, and when the magic of origami begins! Pinch together with fingers. Hay presto paper butterfly!

Decorating your butterfly

I used felt tip pens to create a pattern on my butterfly. I did curving lines and an abstract pattern. Then I added the bell by tying it around the middle of the butterfly.

Tying your butterfly cat toy to a stick and ribbon

You can use a bamboo stick or a chopstick, a wooden spoon, maybe even a pencil as a stick. I collected a stick from the garden, try to get a fairly straight one. Gather your string or elastic and double knot it onto the stick. Now chop your string/elastic to the length you wish.

What I did was to make it easier. I asked my brother to help me. It made cutting and tying simpler.

My kittens playing with their new toy

You are now ready to play with your kitten, kittens, cat or cats! Shadow was the first of our kittens to try the new cat toy, it was a great success. I put the butterfly in front of him and he immediately got into the crouch position, the same one he uses when he’s in the garden trying to catch a real butterfly. Then I twitched the butterfly and the bell rang a bit and he tried to pounce on it but i pulled it away. Then he kept leaping and jumping around trying to catch the butterfly, it was really fun and great entertainment for him.

It wasn’t long before Moonpie crept down the stairs to see what was happening. I played with Moonpie next, I made the butterfly flutter around her and she stood on her back legs trying to paw at it. I put i on a step and she jumped to get it. I think both cats really loved the butterfly cat toy and I would definitely make another one. In fact I think I will make one for a friend who has a cat because it would make a really lovely gift.

This entry was posted in Cats