We all know the symbolic meaning of butterflies to be Spring and transformation. Well, I feel for me, Spring, as well as Transformation is in the air. When butterflies flutter in your belly, you’re in love. Such lovely symbolism. So, let’s design a butterfly picture.
I thought today to craft a lesson plan tutorial for classroom use. Needless to say, you can do this at home on your own with the kids also.
Let’s design some Butterfly wall decor.
Here is a sample of this craft idea.
image credit: https://blog.hobbycraft.co.uk/how-to-make-butterfly-canvas-wall-art/ (incl. a tutorial centered around their products)
Step-by-step Craft How-to Make this Butterfly Picture
- With a pencil, lightly draw a big circle on a large canvas using a large circular object. Tip: If you want to make this as a Valentine’s project, draw a large heart instead of a circle onto the canvas. For a heart design you could choose either a square or a rectangular canvas.
- Cut 70-80 butterflies, either in many happy colors for a kids room or kitchen, or in pastel colors for a baby room, or in all white, for people like me, as I prefer monochromatic things. Don’t go too wild on the colors, and pick your colors by looking at the color wheel to create a proper color harmony.
- Next, fold all butterflies so they appear to have wings.
- If you made this monochromatic you could choose to detail one butterfly in a way that it is noticeably different from the rest, as seen from a distance.
- Lay your canvas flat on the table. Throw all the butterflies on the circle in the canvas.
- Look at it? Has nature done a perfect job? Tweak to create a balance composition / color scheme.
- Now get your glue out and glue all the butterflies onto the canvas, approximately in the same way as they’d landed previously onto the canvas.
- Work in a round manner so that the ‘painting’ develops evenly and in balance.
- I can personally however see a few butterflies sneaking out of the circular arrangement, having a mind of their own…. dashing off…Note, however that the circle gives a ‘neatness’ to the randomness of the butterflies. So if you leave one or two escape from the circle, ensure that the overall composition is ‘tight’ and not messy looking.
And there you’ve got it: your own colorful butterfly wall decor design!
If you use more than 1 butterfly design, be sure restrict yourself. Say 3 kinds of butterflies in a monochromatic artwork. If you you use 2, then keep your colors down to e.g. 2 shades of the same color. Besides being a fun project on the theme of transformation or spring, this is also an exercise is balancing control and randomness in the process of designing and making art.
Needed Craft Supplies for Your Butterfly Wall Decor DIY Project
| Paper Craft Supplies | Supply Description |
  |
Paper Shapers ‘Whale’- Punch – Butterfly
This large puncher creates shapes that are a just under 2” in size. |
 |
Sargent Art 90-3004 12-Inch by 12-Inch Canvas Panel, 100-Percentage Cotton This canvas is available in 9×9” 12×12” and 18×18”. Unless you’ll modify the project whereby the butterflies are shaped within a large heart on the canvas (as for a Valentine Project), you should get a square canvas. |
 |
Paper Mod Podge-Matte
Use classic decoupage glue for a children’s project or the matte, acid-free Mod Podge for fine paper art versions. |
 |
Rainbow Super Value Construction Paper Ream, 9 inches x12 inches, 500 Sheets 
This is way more than you’ll need but this is such a good price, and a colorful stack that is both usable for many different kind of craft projects and will last you all year. |
Tip: if you do not have a butterfly punch, and are not going to get one either, you could do two kind of things:
1. you could use a butterfly stencil to make a template or 2. you could sketch a butterfly to make a stencil. When you sketch one, erase all lines but the outline of the butterfly. Be sure to create easy to cut wings and details. Actually, for very small children you could simply use butterfly clipart as a base, however the designing and cutting is part of the fun for older children.
As a Classroom project for grade 3 and up. Equally fun for adults to make.
Several children could work together on a larger canvas, or each child can work with a smaller canvas of say 9×9”.
This craft activity would also be fun as a summer craft, and the resulting butterfly artwork makes a great gift.
Craft Project Duration
If you punch your butterflies, 45 minutes.
If you hand-cut your butterflies with scissors, 1 hr and 30 min minimum, dependent on paper thickness.
Additional time needed for the glue to dry.
