Butterfly Topiary

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for making the butterfly topiary pictured above. Cutting and adhering the butterflies takes a bit of time and patience, but is absolutely worth the end result.

To start, you'll need:
Mini Glue Dots®
Craft or Memory Book Glue Dots®
A pot or vase
A Styrofoam ball (choose a size that goes well with your vase)
A wooden dowel (painted to match)
Twelve 6" x 6" pieces of paper (I used My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Mabel 6x6 paper pad)

Start by cutting or punching out as many butterflies as you can from your paper. I used my Silhouette SD to cut my butterflies, but any butterfly punch, die, or cutting file will work.

Use 1 Mini Glue Dot® per butterfly and start attaching the butterflies to your Styrofoam ball. I started by doing a line of butterflies around the center of the ball and then worked out from there. The advantage to using Glue Dots® (instead of something like hot glue) is that there is no drying time, there are no glue strings to remove afterward, and you can adjust the butterflies slightly as you work.

Remember to leave a small space empty at the bottom of your ball. This is where you'll attach your wooden dowel. Place a Craft Glue Dot® on the end of your wooden dowel when you insert it into the Styrofoam ball to keep it from moving around.

"Plant" your wooden dowel into your container. The pot I used is from a houseplant that didn't make it (I'm much better with paper plants than live ones!).

I filled the pot with more foam, then covered my mess with piles of ribbon. You could also use shredded paper, decorative stones, or Easter Grass. Finally, decorate the outside of the container with a few leftover butterflies.

If you decide to make your own butterfly topiary, I'd love to see it! Just leave me a comment with a link to your topiary.

*I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.