DIY Butterfly Garden Ornaments

Create beautiful DIY butterfly garden ornaments to display in your garden or yard this summer! These butterflies are made with recycled cardboard, aluminum foil, hot glue and paint. Grab the free template to get started!

Hello Crafty Friends! Today I’m excited to share these DIY butterfly lawn ornaments with you today! We just finished cleaning up an area of our yard that had become overgrown with weeds. We planted a whole new garden and when it was done I kept feeling like the fence, that was there when we bought our home, was so drab and boring. To spruce it up, I decided to try making my own dimensional butterflies to decorate it.

I used recycled cardboard, tin foil, hot glue and acrylic paint to create each butterfly. I love how bright the colors on the foil look in the sunlight. The butterflies add a whimsical feel to the entire garden and some much needed color to the drab fence. This butterfly fence art is super doable and a fun craft project. You can make one and hang it on a hook outside or make a whole bunch and create your very own art installation like I did! 

Update: I wanted to revisit this post and let you know my tin foil butterflies lasted four midwestern summers outside on our fence. I took them in each winter but they lived outside in direct sunlight and rain for the whole summer. These butterflies may last even longer if they were in shade and not directly exposed to the elements. Some of the jewels in the center fell off here and there but the butterflies held on. Not bad for cardboard and tin foil!

After it was time to say goodbye to these butterflies, I tried making new 3D Butterflies using my Cricut machine and binder material. I really liked them and they were a little quicker to make but they only last two summers and the plastic faded in the sun. Comparing the two different methods of making my fence butterflies, these were may favorite. 

More Garden Crafts

• Watering Can Garden Ornament
• Cute Ladybug Garden Art
• Garden Art from a Paper Plate Holders
• 3D Butterfly Art with Cricut

How to Make Your Own Butterfly Garden Ornaments

Supplies Needed 

• Cardboard – corrugated is best
• Aluminum foil
• Thick wire for antennas 
• Thin wire for attaching or hanging butterflies
• Acrylic Paint: I first colored my butterflies using markers and Sharpie but the colors faded in the sunlight. I re-colored them with acrylic paint and they didn’t fade – so I recommend using acrylic paint.
• Craft knife or box cutter and self-healing mat
• Flat glass marbles
• Hot glue
• Tape
• Mod Podge and/or Americana DuraClear Varnish – OR try this Outdoor Mod Podge
• Paper, pen, and scissors for creating the template
• Free printable template: Located in my Resource Library. Link at the end of this post.

Step by Step Tutorial

Cutting out the Butterflies

Step One: Cut out the butterfly. Use my free printable templates or create your own. Bend a piece of cardboard so there is a thin strip for the body of the butterfly and two wings on either side. I found corrugated cardboard was easier to fold. 

Trace your butterfly wings onto the cardboard on either side of the body.

Carefully cut the butterfly out with a craft knife or box cutter.

Step Two: Create a design with hot glue on each butterfly. Use hot glue to create a raised pattern on each butterfly wing. Keep the designs simple so it isn’t too hard to mold the tin foil around.

Cover the Butterflies

Step Three: Cover the butterflies with aluminum foil. Start at the center of the butterfly and slowly press the aluminum foil down, smoothing it out in between the glue. If you press too hard or go too quickly you may rip the foil. Cover the front of the butterfly first and then the back. I used glue to hold the foil on to the back, and if there were any spots of cardboard still showing, I glued a little piece of foil to cover it.

Color and Decorate the Butterflies

Step Four: Color the butterflies. When I first made my butterflies I used Sharpie and marker and loved how cool the marker looked on the foil. I hung them on my fence and within a week I noticed my colors had already started fading! I took them all down and re-colored them, this time using acrylic paint. This worked much better and lasted the entire summer (and three summers after that). You may be able to use marker if the butterflies are for an indoor display or are in a very shaded area of your yard, but I recommend using acrylic paint so you don’t have to worry about fading!

Step Five: Hot glue decorative stones to the each butterfly. Add decorative stones down the center of each butterfly. I used hot glue but I did have stones fall off here and there over the years which was disappointing. A different type of adhesive may work better, especially if the adhesive is rated for outdoors. You could also skip the decorative stones and paint the body instead.

Step 6: Add wire antennae to each butterfly. Using needle-nose pliers, curl the ends of two pieces of thick wire into an antennae shape. Glue them to the back of the butterfly and then cover with a little piece of foil.

Seal the Butterflies and Prepare them for Hanging

Step Seven: Add wire holders to each butterfly so they can be attached to a fence. I poked two holes into the butterfly on either side of the butterfly’s body. Then using the thin wire, I threaded it through the holes and left about 12″ on either end. This is how I attached each butterfly to a fence post.

Step Eight: Seal the butterflies for outdoor use. I started by applying Mod Podge to the butterflies, starting with the back and then the front. I then found Outdoor Varnish and repeated the process. I may have only needed the Outdoor Varnish, I’m not sure. I just wanted to create a good barrier to protect the cardboard under the tin foil from getting wet.

Hang the Butterflies in Your Garden

Step Nine: Hang the butterflies up and enjoy! I found the easiest way to hang my butterflies was to arrange them on my fence using tape. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I pushed the wires of each butterfly to the other side of the fence. Then on the back side of the fence, I twisted the wires together tightly to hold the butterflies.  

I love the whimsy these butterflies add to our garden! View all of my Garden Crafts for more fun ideas!

Free Download

Download the Free File! This freebie is in my Resource Library. The PDF is under Paper Patterns, All Other Paper Crafts. Enter your first name and email to get the password to download this file. You’ll also have a chance to sign up for my newsletter to receive fun craft tutorials, tips, updates and more FREE files to help make crafting something special and unique easier!