Monday, February 3, 2014

Butterfly Garland

For Sadie's 8th birthday, I wanted to decorate for her family party without spending money.  My ever-crafty sister sent me some links via pinterest and this one looked the most simple and promising.  Here's what the finished garland looked like.


I used to make my own greeting cards so I still had plenty of scrapbooking-type paper on hand.  I made my own butterfly pattern and starting cutting away.  I used off-white quilting thread and double-sided tape to string the butterflies and hold the two sides together.  I wasn't sure how they would hold along the thread but they have very well.  Bending the wings slightly makes them three-dimensional.


You could really take this idea any direction- hearts, animals, balls, flowers, trucks and cars- you name it.  It was a bit time-consuming (the cutting out part) so I'll be careful taking them down and will save them to re-use on Easter and for future girl birthdays.


A bonus was that those butterflies reminded us of summer...and we can't wait:-). Pin It

8 comments:

  1. Oh those look simple and pretty. Did you do a butterfly decorated cake too? Those would be cute on the presents too, in place of ribbons.

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  2. Thank you:-). There wasn't a butterfly cake although that would have been very sweet. She wanted ice cream sandwich cake (http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/2009/02/ice-cream-sandwich-cake.html) even though it was freezing outside!

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  3. That turned out so cute!!! I think homemade is the best, anyway. Ian's 9th birthday party was Pirate themed...we were SO BROKE so I had to get creative. I made a really fun Treasure Chest full of "loot" out of a heavy duty shipping box that my husband had from a supplier. We had make your own sundaes and a pile of $ 5 pizzas. They went on a "treasure hunt" and found the treasure chest in my neighbors yard after following a map made out of a brown paper bag. The loot was a bag of goodies for each guest. It was a fun party!

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    Replies
    1. My oldest , now 29, was really into pirates when he was around 5-6 years old. Made him a pirate costume too. We did a pirate themed birthday when he was 6. Pirate Lego sets were popular then also. We had the treasure hunt thing too.

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  4. So cute!

    This is totally off the subject of butterflies and birthdays but I am just curious as I look at your dining room if you painted all the trim white in your house or if it was already white when you moved in? I am trying to decide what to do in our house as all of the trim is brown including all of the doors. I am leaning towards white as it just seems so much brighter.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Judi:-). When we moved in here- all the trim was painted a darker version of the walls. So, in the dining room, the walls were mauve and the trim was dark mauve. In the living room, the walls were purple and the trim dark blue/purple. Everything was too dark for me so we lightened everything up. All our trim throughout the house is now the same color (an off white) so that touch ups are easy. Wall colors vary, but trim stays the same. To me, it's cleaner and brighter (and less colors of paint to keep track of) :-).

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    2. I agree that it looks cleaner and brighter. Just will take some time to get it all done! :) Plus we need all new windows because the current ones are the original 1955 ones! It has been a drafty winter!

      By the way, we so love your tomato soup recipe we canned! I have already decided we will can at least 50 quarts this year as we have been averaging one quart a week and they are just about gone :(. The spaghetti sauce is great too!

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  5. How colorful and lovely! Your decorations look as nice as any you could have purchased.

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