Decorative Butterfly Art Craft

DIY Decorative Butterfly

A fun craft project made with cardboard, glue, wire, paint and glitter.

Here is what you will need to make this project:
 
Cardboard - I used Heineken Beer bottle divider.
Gray Paint
Yellow Paint
Glue
Gold Glitter
Blue Glitter
Gold Wire
Scissors
Bamboo Skewer

I use the cardboard beer bottle divider from a Heineken twelve pack. The butterfly shape is already scored into the cardboard. All you need to do is just a little shaping of the wings with your scissors.

Paint the cardboard butterfly gray.

Then free-form paint parts of the wings yellow. 

For small paint jobs, instead of paint brushes I use cotton ear swabs to paint with. Paint brushes are expensive and cleaning them is a pain but with a pack of swabs from the dollar store - 350 count - for a buck I just use them instead. I eventually use both sides so that's 700 tips for painting total. Then just toss them when I'm done with them.

They do break down quickly though and and you have to watch for the cotton pulling away from the stick. Brushes are always the ideal choice if you want to spend the money and do the maintenance on them.

Cut out the body of the butterfly from the extra cardboard.

Paint the body black. 

Glue the body to the wings.

Spread glue generally over the wings. Sprinkle gold glitter. Shake off excess glitter.

Spread more glue to specific spots on the wings and the body. Sprinkle blue glitter. Shake off excess glitter.   

Cut two pieces of gold wire about 1 1/2 inches. 

Wrap the wire around a pen or pencil to shape.

Glue the wire to the back of the butterfly's head.

Paint a bamboo skewer black and glue or tape it to the back of the butterfly.

And that's it! You've now got a glittery decorative butterfly with a stake attached to it.