Fairytale Garden Party Butterflies

Materials:

Florist Crepe Paper. We used Hot Pink/Light Pink Graduated Florist Crepe for the wings, Brown for the body, and Black for the eyes.

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Wire

1/2" Dowel or Thin Cardboard Tube

Scissors

Best Ever Stapler

Cut a 1" strip of brown crepe paper, making sure to cut across the grain. It should be fairly long, about 48". Cut a 14" long piece of dowel or cardboard tube and wrap the crepe paper to cover it, as shown. We find that this is best done by adding a thin line of glue to the crepe and stretching it taut as you wrap.

Cut a piece of crepe paper for the wings that is 14" long by 20" (the width of the roll) wide. Fold it into quarters - you should have 10" x 7" rectangle. Cut the shorter edge into a pointed lobe. Cut from the lobe along the folded 10" side, leaving about 1" uncut, so that when the piece is unfolded you will have 4 wings that are joined in the center.

Gather the crepe paper down the center and wrap it tightly with a piece of wire. Leave the wire ends long as they will be needed to attach the wings to the body. We also include a perpendicular piece of wire into the gather on the back side of the wings so that we can later use it to hang our butterfly.

Cut two 2"x14" strips of crepe paper for the body and scallop the edges, rounding the ends. Cut two oblong eyes and glue them to the head of one of the body pieces.

Use the long ends of the wire to attach the wings to the top third of the body. Wrap the wire tightly around the tube and trim the ends. Stretch out the wings and staple the top pair together in several places along the body. Staple the bottom pair together in a similar fashion.

Wrap the middle of a 14" piece of wire around the top of the tube to make the antennae. Curl them into shape.

Glue the body piece with the eyes onto the front of the tube with the eyes at the head.

Glue the back body piece onto the back of the butterfly. Use the wires on the back to hang the decoration.

These oversized butterflies have a magical way of transforming any garden into a fairyland.