Some easy ways to reuse, reduce and recycle magazines and create some eye catching art during this time, could involve nothing more but some scissors, a glue stick and some old magazines. A black texta and some cover paper (white and coloured) will round off our artwork.

We gather the following items to get you started on this activity:

1. Some A3 cover paper or cardboard (assorted colours) from your local art supplier or recycle what you have at home, then scissors, glue stick, black texta, and a stash of old magazines or illustrated books you no longer want to read/keep.

2. We decide on a colour palette: eg. in the above example you have a red/blue colour combo. You can use any colour combination you might like; contrasting colours can be very effective and visually appealing:

3. Now choose images in your books and magazines, which feature your chosen colours and make a collection of tones or shades. Use your scissors to cut them out and place them in a pile.

4. Ask your child to draw a butterfly outline with the black texta. Next glue some snippets of colour into each wing, making sure that each piece overlaps a little to avoid the paper shining through . Consider a pattern of stripes for the body of the butterfly to add visual interest and add a dash of science with cut out eyes. When finished with your butterfly collage, cut out the artwork and paste the butterfly shape onto contrasting paper ready for display.

Some moths and butterflies bear circular, high-contrast marks on their wings that have long been thought to scare off predators by mimicking the eyes of the predators' own enemies