Monday, January 18, 2021

Quick Craft: Make This Jaw-Dropping Rainbow Butterfly Wreath For Less Than $15!




This may be the easiest Quick Craft I've ever done, y'all. If you can stick magnets on a fridge, then this is right up your skill set alley, baby. OH YEAH. Plus it only takes about 20 minutes, so it's a nice way to ease back into crafting if you haven't felt motivated in a while.

All you need is this $11 set of butterfly magnets from Amazon:

[UPDATE: If those are sold out, then here's a similar magnetic set for about the same price.]

Which comes packaged like this:



And then a $1 metal wreath form from Dollar Tree:

The most important thing here is to hang your wreath form where you plan to display it FIRST. Don't try to stick the butterflies on and then hang it, because they could slide around and/or fall off. You also don't want to use this on a door, unless you plan to add some hot glue to the magnets. Otherwise one good slam and it could be raining butterflies. :D

Once your wreath form is hung on the wall - or in our case, over a window curtain - start by placing one large butterfly of each color around the wreath to help with your spacing:



There are 84 butterflies total, and they come with the magnets already attached on their plastic bodies.

Now just keep filling in by color:


The magnets are strong enough to handle a little jostling, so you can slide them around or rotate them to help you cram in more butterflies. Bend the wings up at varying angles as you go, and start with the largest sizes first. I didn't use all 84, but it was close!

Ready to see the finished wreath in better light?

BOO to the YAH, y'all. Booyah.

Look how pretty. ::whispering::  Look at it.


Every single butterfly in this set is unique, and they're double-sided so they look nice from all angles. My only minor quibble is that they're a little shiny, so in direct sunlight some of the wings reflect a glare. This room stays shrouded in black-out curtains almost 24/7, though, so no biggie.


You can still see the wreath form in a few places, but for the most part the black metal disappears against the black curtain - which almost makes them look like they're floating.


I like the low commitment of the magnets: they let me play with the placement and move things around. You could always go back and add hot glue now to make the stick more permanent, but so far these are holding just fine. When John bumped it pretty hard with his elbow, only one fell off!




Because the wreath form isn't flat, there's a lovely dimension to the butterflies wrapping around it. You can see even more butterflies from the sides:



I actually made this wreath for John, believe it or not, because butterflies are his favorite animal. (Wait. Can we call them animals? ::Google Google Google:: Aha! We can! Ok, carry on.) Not because butterflies are pretty - though they are - but because of their metamorphosis. John friggin' loves that part, and used to regale our friends with the whole caterpillar-goo-butterfly process and why it's so incredible. I think butterflies represent both the divine and our own potential to be transformed to John, which makes for some pretty cool conversations.


Plus, you know, pretty. And now rainbows!

I hadn't thought much about John's butterfly fandom until a few weeks ago, when I found he'd stuck a couple of Dollar Tree butterflies around the walls of the Fan Cave. They looked... fine... but I immediately thought, "Oh, we can do MUCH better than this."

And I gotta say, I think we did better:

Ahhh. So good.

I originally planned to hang this on the smaller window behind the chairs, but John insisted we hang it here, where he can see it. He even took down his Hufflepuff banner for this! Whaaaaat.

John also asked for phone wallpapers, so here come a couple of options:












And finally, I want to give a shout-out to my inspiration for this wreath, posted by Jill Vaughn in the customer reviews on Amazon:


In fact, while I'm at it let me show you a few more of my favorites from the customer photos; there are so many great ideas here!

Yaaaaas.

The butterflies come with double-sided sticky squares you can stick right over the magnets. Perfect for sticking on walls like this:



I think I'll be making this next wreath for our front door eventually, because I am smitten:


If rainbows aren't your jam, there are plenty of butterflies to only use pastels or warm or cool tones:

This one feels extra Spring-y to me.

Then this lady just stuck them all to her metal front door!

Oooh. If I had a glass screen door I'd totally do this.

Again, all these photos - plus dozens and dozens more - can be found in the customer image gallery on the Amazon listing for the butterflies. Be sure to check over there for more ideas!

This post is not sponsored, but any purchases you make through my Amazon links do give a small percentage back to help support me and the blog. So thank you for supporting us while you shop. ::mwah::

And finally, if you're looking for more craft ideas, be sure to check out my tutorial page! I have over 150 project photos for you to browse, with more on the way, since I just realized we haven't updated that in far too many months, haha. Oops.

22 comments:

  1. Just a suggestion for the shiny butterflies: a quick dusting with a matte finish clear coat should tone it down.

    Your wreath is delightful, very whimsical. And this from someone who thinks butterflies are just fancy bugs. LOL

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  2. Oooh! I can totally see this with battery operated twinkle lights woven around the frame before the butterflies get applied.

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  3. The Children’s Department at my library is getting a brand new, beautiful, rainbow-y, wreath!!! Thank you! Pssst! The summer reading theme this summer will be “Reading Colors Your World” so rainbows will be on theme! 🌈 I love it when the theme works on multiple levels!

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  4. What a beautiful thing!! It’s so full of life! Great job!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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  5. "and our own potential to be transformed to John" Wait! We can transform to John?!! I mean, always be yourself. Unless you can be John! Then always be John! He's cooler than dragons! (Also, pretty wreath!)

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    Replies
    1. Lol, Im glad im not the only one who read it this way at first.

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  6. Oooooh!

    When I read the part about the divine and our potential, I read the line as, “our potential to turn into John.” I thought, “How sweet!” And then, “Whoa, that’s deep.”

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  7. I had gotten the ones from Amazon that aren't magnets, that just come with the double-sided sticky squares, and they are flying all over the walls of my powder room. I also have a few 3-d ones made from feathers (dollar store) that can sit on picture frames and such. I've had them up for several years, and they still look great.

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  8. Ooh, so pretty! I larvae it (Eh, eh? Okay, I'll see myself out)!

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  9. Oh wow, that turned out just beautifully! So many options with them, too. :)

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  10. I was just looking at wreaths on Etsy to see what they are going for there. Your butterfly wreath is much more beautiful than the Etsy finds and a lot more affordable!<3
    ~SM3

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  11. Great. You made Amazon sell out of butterflies! I did not order in time! 😭😭😭

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  12. I love this SO MUCH! Alas, there are no butterflies to buy. But, maybe they will restock. In any case, it's a really beautiful project and makes my heart sing. Thank you for that.

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  13. If John really loves butterflies, you might want to check out the RadioLab podcast about their transformation -- blew my mind. I think it's in the episode called "Black Box." ps - I've been a fan and lurker for years; this is the first time I've been brave enough to post anything, but I'm so grateful for your generosity, your honesty, and your awe-inspiring creativity! I've tried so many new crafts just because you made it so safe, accessible and fun. Thank you!

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  14. I totally made this myself after seeing this post! I haven't been inspired to craft in such a long time. Thank you for the suggestions and the tutorial. I used a branch wreath and moss to add some texture to the butterflies. It now proudly hangs on my wall!

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  15. Can you please share the original link in case they get restocked? Your replacement link comes up at 35$ for me! And even my kids think this is cool.

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    1. Good news, they're in stock now! Here's the link. And as of this writing they're only $9, score.

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  16. I love the screen saver idea and I understand branding is a thing but I would personally never use a screensaver with a brand on it - much as I like this site and have kept coming back to it for years! I would though, ALWAYS remember and go back to check a site that gave me a screensaver I really loved. I think sometimes we feel like we ought to do business the way everyone else does it in these little things instead of trusting customers to return to us for things they love.

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    Replies
    1. I appreciate that, and please feel free to crop off the watermark if you want to use any of my pics. Watermarks are just a necessary evil online, since photos tend to wander and show up all over the internet uncredited - or worse, in an art thief's web store.

      Personally I'm grateful that most people watermark now; it's how I've traced back uncredited photos countless times to go follow the original creator. And hey, if someone's giving something out for free, I'm not about to quibble if they want to sign their work.

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  17. Just to give you the heads up that someone is using your photo to sell items on Facebook. >_<

    https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/shops/item/5004519296253062/?referral_story_type=shop_pdp_share_deep_link&referral_code=marketplace_pdp_share

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for looking out, but we're all good! Looks like they only used photos from Amazon, the same place I got those last inspiration pics.

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