Recycled Butterflies

This round of Iron Craft called for recycling in honor of Earth Day.

Take something that we would normally throw away and use it in a craft.

I made butterflies.

Can you guess what I recycled to make these?

Go ahead, try.

Okay, I'll tell you.

A two litter soda bottle!

After hubby finished off a bottle of A&W I cleaned out the bottle and let it dry.

Then I used an exacto knife to cut out a piece from the side.

I used the natural curve of the bottle to make it look like the wings are flapping.

I outlined the butterfly with puff paint and also used it to make the markings on the butterflies.

Then I used stain glass paint to fill everything in.

For hanging I used a compass (like you use to draw circles) and poked holes into the plastic with the pointed end.

Then ran jewelry wire through both holes and tied so they can hang from suction cup hooks.

Nearly free stain glass butterflies fluttering in your window!

Paper Butterflies

If you have been to my house you know that I have some decorations that are directly on the wall.

The flames painted above the thermostat, the cherry blossom tree painted in the living room and the dice painted game room door just to name a few.

My newest edition is a collection of butterflies flying across the wall in the game room/library.

I took some book pages created from this project: book safe

And some old music sheets like were used in this project: music love 

I mostly hand sketched the butterflies on to the paper, then cut them out. 

I bent the wings up and attached a strip of double sided tape to the body and stuck them directly to the wall. 

Just to the right of these pictures are my bookcases and the framed "music love" piece I created so these butterflies are flying from the books and up and over the door. 

Of course if you doubt your drawing abilities you could use one of the fancy cutting machines (I don't have one but I'm sure they'd have a way to make this faster) or you could trace butterflies off something else.

Let your imagination take flight!