Easy Butterfly Jewelry

Have you ever bought a new dress for a party only to realize you don't have any jewelry to match? After this Instructable, you won't have that problem again!

Here, you'll learn how to make a beautiful piece of jewelry that goes along with clothing of any color! You can make this project in less than an hour and have an easy DIY piece of artwork to hang around your neck.

The project is very simple. You could even adapt it to what you want: flower petals or maybe autumn leaves instead of butterfly wings. I just chose orange for my project for the Colors of the Rainbow contest.

I hope you enjoy learning how to make a piece of jewelry in less than an hour!

Supplies

You only need a few items for this project:
-Scraps of different-colored paper
-Mod-podge (puzzle glue)
-Glitter
-Tape (No need for a special kind, just the clear sort you keep on your desk.)

-Craft knife

-Cutting mat or cutting board

-Necklace chain

Step 1: Make Some Templates

First off, you're going to want to take a piece of plain white paper and draw the shapes of the wings on the paper. Cut out the shapes. Feel free to use my templates in the photos. Just don't make the wings too big or having some huge hanging off your neck may be a problem, but suit yourself with the size.

Step 2: Wing With Lace

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half so that each side has a nice side. (Image 1)

Lay the paper down, with the template on top of it. Tape them both to your cutting surface. (Image 2)

Carefully cut out around the template. (Image 3)

You should now have two piece of paper that when put together have a nice side on both sides. Glue them together with mod-podge.

Fold another piece of paper in half. This piece will be the lace.

Take up your template. Draw the design of the lace on it and tape the lace template down to the folded paper. (Image 4)

Cut out the inside of the lace first, then cut out the template and lace completely from the taped paper. (Image 5)

Carefully glue them onto the wing, with the nice sides showing on their respective halves. (Image 6)

Now you have one completed wing (Image 7)

Step 3: Other Wings

Now that you have one wing down, the others are easy!

Cut another double piece of orange paper for a wing and glue them together. (Image 1)

Cut black lace to put on that wing. (Image 2) This is supposed to closely resemble the wings of the Monarch Butterfly.

The completed wing should look like Image 3. Bright orange background, delicate black lace on top. Make sure when you cut the lace to start from the middle of the design when you cut out the small pieces.

I also made an extra wing to practice on with the glitter. I recommend this, too.

Cut out your practice wing and glue the two halves together. Now spread a thin layer of mod-podge on one side. Carefully sprinkle a light layer of glitter onto the glue. It should stick. (Image 4) Let the glue dry and repeat for the other side.

The last wing will have glitter on it. Cut out the shapes for the final wing and glue the two halves together. (Image 5) Put glitter on both sides. I failed to take a photo of the glitter on that specific wing, but you can see the process in Image 4. See all the wings in Image 6.

Also, do not forget to apply a final coat of mod-podge to all sides of the paper. I applied two to be sure of getting all the paper surfaces covered because it waterproofs and protects the paper, as well as adds a glossy shine when it dries.

Step 4: Attach to Necklace

Use the craft knife to carefully piece a small slit at the very top of each wing where it should connect to the necklace.

Use a needle and thread to loop through all three wings and the necklace. I used thread because it was nearly invisible and easy. You could use a more traditional fastener if you want.

And now you are done! I hope you enjoyed it. Now you can see how simple it is to make one of these. You could apply the identical process to make earrings to match the necklace, as well. I mentioned this project is obviously very versatile. Make the butterfly wings blue or purple or any other color, or change the design to be leaves or feathers or some other shape. Simple and easy, isn't it? Thanks for reading.

This is an Orange project for the Colors of the Rainbow contest.