The Build a Butterfly Fingerpuppet project started out as a community workshop aimed at under 5s. It was bright, colourful and well engineered; and it was a hit with all ages up to and including the parents - some of whom weren't content with just helping their little ones, but even wanted to make their own butterflies.

It was put together for stART, an Artsites project, and has been reinvoked for a weekend workshops during Gallery37 and elsewhere. It still has plenty of mileage, and anyone interested should contact me on the e-mail link.

On my DTP course at Matthew Boulton I used my Illustrator project to convert the Fingerpuppet into an arty construction kit toy, designing the packaging, the instruction sheet and order form.

The packaging was designed so that all the bits and bobs fitted in it, and the toy was designed to leave as much creative input as possible for the end-user with the suggestion that older kids and parents might want to help younger ones. There may be some re-engineering required to realise it as a working toy, but I believe it has the potential to be a winner.