This extremely unusual winter weather has got me thinking of the warmth and refreshing atmosphere of spring. I miss the warmth of the sun, the beautiful flowers and just the right amount of coolness in the air. Of course, where there are flowers, there will also be butterflies. Don’t you just love looking at butterflies, with their delicate wings and all? That’s what I found myself sketching the other day – butterfly wings. And I thought I’d make it into something wearable so I decided to make hairpins out of them. These delicate wings were so easy to make – and best of all, you can make them into something else – be it earrings, a necklace or even a brooch.
DIY Butterfly Wing Barrettes
Supplies:
- Shrink plastic
- Butterfly wing template, for personal use only!
- X-acto knife or Die-cutter
- Parchment paper
- Spray paint (in the color of your choice)
- Mini barrettes
- E6000 glue
Size your template to your preferred wing size (mine was 4 inches per wing) and then print off your template. Trace it onto your shrink plastic and then cut it out with your x-acto knife or a pair of scissors. Alternatively, you can use your die-cutter to cut onto your shrink plastic. I used my Silhouette machine to cut mine, and I must say, I like using my die-cutter to cut shrink plastic as it gives me a more uniform cut than by just using my hand.
Click here to download a free cut file for your Silhouette. For cutting on your die-cutter, make sure your mat is sticky enough.
For the settings, I used Speed:1, Thickness:33, Blade: 10. Do a test cut and feel free to play with it, but with my kind-of-dull blade, I had to cut the design three times using these settings. See how clean that cut is, though?
Next, fold some parchment paper in half and sandwich your shrink plastic in between the sheets. Bake the shrink plastic according to the package’s instructions – for my Grafix film sheets, I used 325 f for 4 minutes.
Now it’s time to paint – one little trick I do for spray painting tiny charms is to stick them onto tape before I paint them. Don’t use shipping tape though, as it has grooves that will let the spray paint bleed on the other side and you will end up with an imperfect surface.
Wait for that to dry, and then spray the other side.
Glue it onto your barrette and then wait for the glue to dry. Spray another coat of paint over your finished product. You may also want to spray a clear acrylic coating after that to prevent the paint from fading over time. And you are done!
If you aren’t into barrettes, here are other ideas to use this template:
Using some jump rings and earring hooks, make simple earrings as shown above.
You can also make a necklace – make one that looks like a butterfly (as shown above) or use just one wing.
Wasn’t that easy? What color would you make this in?
For more hair adornments, you may want to check out my other hair accessory ideas over at Minted Strawberry.
–Aki
Kimberly
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These are very beautiful! I wish I could make these! So what do you do if you aren’t fortunate enough to have one of the Silhouette things? Are you SOL? :/
Hi! You can print the template, trace it onto your shrink plastic and then cut it with scissors or an x-acto knife. :) A die-cutter just makes it easier but you can definitely do it without :)
Great idea! I never thought of that! Thanks!
I cannot get the pattern for the wings to show up on the screen…sniff-boo-hoo…the screen appears black, but if you look closely, the black line drawing is hiding in all the blackness…or the screen is blank. Love the necklace idea!
Hi Susie! You can download the template and open it / resize it with any photo-editing software you have (even MS Paint works, too).
I love these! Especially the earring and necklace idea! Thank you for sharing your template! Can’t wait to make something beautiful with it! :)
Oh my goodness! I never thought to use shrink plastic like this. My girls just got some blank shrink plastic to play with because they are getting a little big for the shrinkidink kits but still love making stuff like that. They are going to love this.
I cannot tell you how much I love this idea!! Those are beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Aki – I knew this was your project as soon as I saw it. Perfect and gorgeous as always. I especially love the necklace!
Haha! Thank you Alexis! :)
Absolutely brilliant! Love this idea and can’t wait to try it! So creative!
So cute Aki! I want a Silhouette but only have an older model Cricut. I wonder if it would cut the shrink plastic!! I obviously can’t upload the same file but I could do other shapes!
hi !!
I find this gorgeous !!
could you tell the settings on the cameo you used for the shrinking plastic … I tried several times but never worked :(
You mentioned Grapfix film .. is that what you used to shrink your design on?