Guest post by Johanna Bless of Bless Nest Learning.
In this post I’m going to show you how to make a butterfly or fairy wings costume using pressed flowers and contact paper. Superbloom blessed the California hillsides this past spring, and it was definitely a sight to behold! We came home from hikes with wildflowers and pressed them traditionally: between large, heavy books. Some of the flowers lost quite a bit of color in the process, so I searched for a better way to preserve flowers while keeping more of their original vibrancy! I loved the results of the microwaving method for pressing and drying flowers, so that’s the process I’ll be demonstrating. I hope that you and your child enjoy each stage of creating these floral butterfly wings, and that they bring years of whimsy to your child’s play. I will forever cherish the memories of gathering flowers with my daughter from our garden, decorating the wings after her little brother had gone to bed, and playing butterflies as we frolicked in the field near our home at sunset.
Materials:
– Fresh flowers or leaves
– Microwave (or if you don’t have a microwave, you can press the flowers between the pages of books, or in a traditional press)
– Paper towels
– Glass or ceramic baking dish (approximately 9x9in)
– Contact paper (two pieces, approximately 2ft each)
– Sheer paper (parchment paper or tracing paper, approximately 2ft)
– Thick stick (ideally with a flat side- we used driftwood)
– Hot glue
– Elastic (approximately 1/4” thick)
Instructions for making the butterfly wings:
Step 1: How to press (and dry) flowers in a microwave
Place your fresh flowers between two paper towels. Use two layers of paper towels if the flowers have a lot of moisture. Place directly on top of the rotating dish in your microwave and place your glass or ceramic baking dish on top as a weight. This dish will eventually get hot, so use oven mitts when removing it. Microwave for 15-30 seconds. (If your baking dish doesn’t cover all of the flowers underneath it, shift it to new spots for each microwaving interval.) Microwave for another 15-30 seconds. Remove everything, and replace the paper towels with dry ones (or slide the flowers to a dry spot on the paper towel). To cut down on waste, I saved all of the used paper towels and used them for cleaning afterwards.
Step 2: How to make the butterfly template
Butterflies technically have 4 wings, but for simplicity we just made a left and right wing. Using a sheer piece of paper to make the template for the wings ensures that the wing size and shape will be identical on both sides. Start by folding the paper in half. The fold represents the middle of the butterfly, where the body is. Draw one wing with a bold permanent marker. Flip the folded paper over, and draw the second wing by tracing over the lines of the first. Now open your paper and tape the four corners down to a flat surface so it won’t shift or adjust. The sheer paper will act as your template only and will not be part of the final wings. Tape down the corners of one piece of contact paper over the sheer paper, with the sticky side UP.
Step 3: How to decorate the butterfly wings
Now for the fun part! Depending on the age of your child, they can decorate by themselves, or you can help them. My daughter was about 3.5yrs old when we did this project, so we each decorated one wing. Beforehand, we looked at pictures of real butterflies and talked about symmetry and patterns. We took turns selecting flowers and placing them in the same spot the other person did so that our wings were symmetrical. Don’t place flowers too close to the edge–use the line on your template as a guide.
Step 4: How to seal the butterfly wings
When you’re done decorating, seal the deal with another piece of contact paper. This time, sticky side DOWN. The best way to avoid a lot of air bubbles is to start the contact paper on either the right or left side, pressing down as go until you’ve reached the other side. Make sure that the top contact paper lines up with the bottom one before starting this! It would be disappointing to get to the other side only for the top paper to be crooked and not cover the bottom layer. Using a sharpie, trace the lines from your template below on to your top layer of contact paper. Cut the wings out, just inside the sharpie line so there aren’t any sharpie lines on your final project.
Step 5: How to finish the butterfly costume
Add the butterfly body and straps. We used a piece of driftwood, but you can use any stick, or even a thick piece of cardboard with sticks glued on top. Hot glue the butterfly body onto the middle of the wings. Cut two pieces of elastic to serve as the straps that will go around your child’s shoulders. Measure them on your child before cutting and gluing. Glue the ends of the elastic on the top third of the stick, and the other ends on the bottom third of the stick.
Marisa G says
This is beautiful! Thank you
Woodlark says
Thank you Marisa! We are so happy to share Johanna’s beautiful work on the blog.
Noel says
while I haven’t made butterfly wings. I did microwave every flower I could find last fall, didn’t have a project in mind at the time. what I want to say is that every flowed kept their color and almost have a paper feel to them. the colors are just beautiful. some leaves were great too.
Susan Sudimak says
I adore this! Thank you!
Jayne says
I love this so much.
Flowers in the micro as we speak.
Wonderful idea.
Thanyou for sharing xx
Rachel Maris says
How does it hold up over time?
Joy says
How do you keep them from folding in or bending?
Johanna says
Hi Joy!
If you make the wings the same size we did, they DO bend in at the joint (where the body is, in the middle). We like to think that they are flapping! 🙂 Aside from bending in the middle, the sides of the wings don’t bend anywhere else on ours. I think if you have enough flowers for structure, and if you keep them the size we made, then they won’t bend in other areas. Hope that helped! -Johanna Bless
Dani VonShweetz says
Hi Johanna!
Is there any advice you would give, to keep the wings up?
We made ours yesterday and, though beautiful, the wings are completely noodle-ish! No shape is held… the top of the wings simply droop in half to the point that you cannot tell they are wings!
Perhaps wrong contact paper? Or am I missing an element that helps the project keeps structure?
Johanna says
Thanks for your question, Dani. My daughters wings “flap” (flop) where the stick is glued on. We like to think about them “opening and closing” like a butterfly. If the wings are to large they can flop more. A wider stick body can help them stay open too. If you wanted to add a wire, you could do that. Be careful of sharp edges being covered properly. I have not tried a few wire myself. In all the photos on my Instagram, those are specific moments when the wings are open, but they do flap when worn. You can see how my daughter’s flap on the video in my Instagram story highlights regarding the wings. Hope that helps!
Rilla says
Perhaps adding an additional layer of contact paper would help strengthen the wings 🤷♀️
Emma says
You could maybe add some stick inside of the design with the flowers to help give it a stucture affect while sticking with the nature wings look!
mary says
this is so beautiful! im inspired to do this too!
may I know where to buy the matte contact paper?
Woodlark says
Hi Mary, you can purchase contact paper at any general merch store such as Target!
Melissa says
Could this be done with laminating pouches and put through a laminator? I guess it would depend on thickness of the flowers? I’m so excited to try to though! Thank you for sharing.
Woodlark says
Hi Melissa! It could possibly work, but since laminating material is quite rigid I would be concerned about the safety of the wings around the edges where they are cut out.
Adele says
I did it with laminating paper, punched a few holes along the edges and treaded ribbon through to prevent sharp edges
Melissa says
Thanks Adele – that’s a great idea!
Kaydi Devlin says
This is so incredible, I teared up a little bit after reading the intro. Xoxo thank you for sharing, blessings to you and your family!
Paula Ronan says
This is beautiful, I am going to have a go myself. Thank you for sharing .
Marlene Rombold says
I Love this I Love Butterflies. Just Beautiful
Jazzy says
can you save /keep the wings? or do the flower start aging
Woodlark says
Hi Jazzy, you’ll be able to save and use the wings for quite some time!
Courtney says
We really love this beautiful tutorial! Thank you for sharing! Did johanna’s IG change? I followed her her but noticed her Bless Nest account is no longer there! Thank you!
Woodlark says
Hi Courtney,
She has been gone from Instagram for quite some time now, unsure if she’ll be back.
Ashley
Angela says
Alternative way to make strong wings is use clear laminating sheets (buy from stationary shop). You don’t need a laminating machine, you can just cover with a cotton tea towel and iron on a hot setting to seal them.
Melissa says
Thanks Angela – I hadn’t thought about using the iron instead. That would eliminate the thickness issue with the laminating machine.
Ruth says
I love the beauty of it – all !
Spending the time outside gathering – planning – playing with the wings !
If you’re really wanting wings to flap attach 2 or 3 circles of elastic so that the wings are on the arms not over the shoulders/ on your back – the elastic rings would go in the upper arm – near the elbow & at the wrist !
Thank you for such a beautiful adventure with children !
Diana says
Teist pipe cleaners together and stick to contact paper edge all the way around the edges of the butterfly wings. No more flop. Untill you bump something.
Nadia says
Will you make one and let me buy it?
Debbie Jones says
I just came back to read this. I saw it earlier this morning and sent to a few friends. I plan on also making the wings for my 6 year old granddaughter. Thank you so much for sharing such a cute idea!
Can’t wait to make it with lot of colorful 🌸🌸🌸🌸 🌸 !!!!!
Debbie in alabama!!!
2023
Cordell says
This is amazing…and creatively so. Thank you for sharing. My granddaughter and I will have to try it. I will start collecting things soon.
Christina Johnson says
These wings are so very beautiful!
I tried to find a Facebook page with your content but all I could find were people sharing from your website. I did find an empty shell of a page that seemed to be related to your page. I’m wondering why you have chosen to not have a presence there. In any case, I love your website and will be poking around for more activities we can try. I added a link to this activity from my blog.
Mary. Florence says
I’m confused about the contact paper. Is it clear? All I’ve ever seen is patterned.
Woodlark says
Hi Mary,
Yes the contact paper is clear
– Ashley
Lea Ann aderhold says
Love love love this idea and can’t wait to make for my twin granddaughters!
Jen Ramos Ayala says
Hi,
My cousin made this with her daughter and it came out great! I was wondering if you had any ideas for using a more natural medium than the contact paper?