Recycled Paper Butterfly Wreath

Recycling has been on my mind for a while now as I am cleaning out the house and getting everything ready for our big move.  I have to get rid of most everything!   The craft room is the hardest.  I have so many things that I just can’t throw away!  I love to recycle and create new from things that are normally thrown away such as toilet paper tubes, disposable pans and magazines.

And craft magazines are particularly hard for me to get rid of.  So, I pulled a few of them aside and decided to create a Recycled Paper Butterfly Wreath.

recycled-magazine-butterfly-wreath2

This pretty wreath is made from colorful pages of my craft magazines and is an adaption from a tutorial that I discovered on Atomic Shrimp.  It is an easy to make project that is perfect for those of us that are wishing for spring!  Want to know how to make it?

recycled paper butterfly wreath

For this project I used:

Magazines
Glue
Hot Glue
Small Grapevine Wreath
Clothespin and toothpick

Since I was making more than one butterfly, I cut some templates from cardboard to make it easier.  You would need a 5″ square template, a 5″ x 2.5″ rectangle (rounded at the corners), and a 1″ x 6″ rectangle.  Use the templates to cut out pieces of colorful magazine pages. (Each butterfly will take less than one magazine page).  In addition, cut a long strip that is no more than 1/4″ wide.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Begin by folding the 5″ square in half diagonally.  Then fold back 1/4″ from the diagonal fold.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Continue folding back and forth a quarter inch at a time.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Here is one side completed.  Then flip it over the fold the other side a quarter inch at a time.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Once the entire piece is folded, wrap about 2″ of your thin strip of paper around the center.  Add a dot of glue to hold the strip in place and then pinch it with a clothespin until it dries.  (It only takes about 5 minutes to dry enough to work with it).

recycled paper butterfly wreath

While the top wings are drying, fold the 5″ x 2.5″ rectangle in the same way, only horizontally like above.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

To create the body of the butterfly, take the 1″ x 6″ strip and wrap it around a toothpick diagonally like above.  Continue rolling it.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

The toothpick will fall out and you should have something like this.  Use a dot of glue to tack the end.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Place your folded bottom wings along side of the now dry folded top wings.  Wrap more of the thin strip of paper around the center of both wings sets and add a dot of glue.  Pinch with clothespin until dry.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Cut a couple of very thin strips of paper.  Wrap around a toothpick and release.  They should create cute little curly antennas.  Add a drop of glue inside the tube of the body and insert the antennas.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Unfold the wings and spread them out.  Add a couple v-shaped strips to the bottom wings if you like.  Then use hot glue to glue the body to the center of the wings.

recycled paper butterfly wreath

Now make a bunch!  For this project I used eight butterflies, but you can use as many as you like.

recycled magazine butterfly wreath3

Then just use some hot glue to add them to the grapevine wreath!  It makes such a pretty spring-like display and your got a bit of recycling in too!  A win-win!