Crafts,  decorating

Paper Rainbow Butterfly Art

An alternate title to this post could be, “How to Turn Birthday Decor Into Art.” Or, I could have titled it: “The Time I Spent 50 Gajillion Hours on a Silly Project.”

Before we moved to Georgia, my daughter had a “Rainbow Butterfly” themed birthday party. There might have been unicorns in there too. It’s hard to pick just one favorite thing when you are turning six.

Anyway, I had this brilliant idea to make it look like a swarm of butterflies were passing by our window. It wasn’t a hard project. It involved construction paper, tape and a butterfly hole punch. I did severely underestimate how long it would take though – a serious Netflix binge kind of forever. (There should have been more purple butterflies, but someone ran out of tape. Hmmm.)

butterfly-party
Anyway, I left those butterflies up for a good month after the party. Partly because it took me so long to put them up there, but mainly because I didn’t want to wash the windows after I removed all of the tape. Those are individual window panes, folks! They were a pain to clean. Wait, was that a pun? Ha!

It also made me a little sick to let all of that time and hard work go to waste. So, I made the emotionally rational decision to turn my paper butterflies into a piece of art. I had a huge frame sitting in our basement that did not have any glass in it that would be perfect for what I had in mind. (The reason the glass (aka mirror) is missing is an entirely different story.)

I spray painted the frame and cardboard backing of the frame black and then armed with my glue gun, a million glue sticks and more shows on Netflix, I began glueing all my butterflies on the board. The butterflies are pinched slightly so that it looks like they are in flight. Here’s how it turned out:

butterflypic1
There was no complicated process here. I simply eyeballed how many butterflies would fit on a row. There was a mess-up on the first row, but I soldiered on and fixed it on the second row so that the butterflies had more breathing space. After that, it was as simple as lining the butterflies up and glueing away.

butterflypic2
Since I haven’t figured out a good way to not get little strings of glue everywhere when using a glue gun, you’ll still find them on the artwork today. I picked a lot of them off, but since my perfectionistic tendencies run on the very low side of the scale, I ignored the rest of them. 🙂

butterflypic3
In person, the piece does make quite a statement. It’s colorful and since the butterflies aren’t under glass there’s a nice 3-D effect going on.

butterflypic4

I don’t know that this piece of artwork “goes” with my decor. It’s definitely more whimsical and brighter than anything else I have going on. Yet, it makes me happy. Isn’t that the point of art, to evoke some sort of emotional response? There’s some sentiment behind the piece too because it reminds me of a beautiful moment in my daughter’s life. There’s also the fact that I can’t quite seem to let go of the fact that I spent forever and a day punching out and attaching and reattaching those darn butterflies. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty. It’s different. It’s unexpected. Somehow, when something make you happy in your home, it just seems to work.


Thank you for reading! Here are some other posts you might enjoy!

Colorful Wall in Girl’s Room – update on this butterfly art

Display Shelf from a Wine Rack for a kid’s room

Hubcap Art for a Boy’s Room


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2 Comments

  • Cynthia Lee

    I have been going crazy trying to find a way to fix black marks (some are gouges) on my kitchen and bathroom linoleum /vinyl floors (not sure which it is). What you did was amazing but my gouges in some areas are rather large. And, I’m not the handiest person. I have begged my landlord to fix it to no avail. Both rooms are a rather light yellowish color. Not sure if it would work. What do you think?

    • annisa

      I don’t know what you mean by ‘rather large,’ so that could impact your end result. If your landlord is okay with you attempting a fix, then I don’t think it would hurt to try. What do you have to lose? Remember, you can’t necessarily “fix” the marks, but you can try to make them less noticeable. I’d pick the smallest mark in the least noticeable place and just see how it goes. You might surprise yourself with what you can accomplish! Home Depot does sell a vinyl repair kit, which is similar to what I used with the supplies I had on hand. Here’s the link: https://www.homedepot.com/p/CalFlor-VinylFix-Vinyl-Flooring-Repair-Kit-FL49106CF/207197942?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CG%7CBase%7CD23%7C23-10_WOOD_FLOORING%7CNA%7CPLA|71700000032320746|58700004389677924|92700036924275021&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm4uEjdXu4QIVio3ICh1zWgl4EAQYASABEgKCGPD_BwE

      Or you could always throw a rug over the marks! Good luck! I’m rooting for you!

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