Spring Butterflies with HeatnBond

Hi everyone!  Andy here from A Bright Corner.  It’s been warmer than usual here this week and I have a bad case of spring fever!  The good news is that spring is just around the corner – just a couple of short weeks away!  Today I’m bringing you a quick no-sew project that’s sure to bring a breath of fresh, spring air to your home.  I used this image from Pinterest as my inspiration:

For this tutorial, the sweet spring butterflies are made using your favorite fabric scraps and some HeatnBond® Ultrahold.  I decided to re-purpose a cute metal pot and I grabbed a few branches from a bush in my front yard.  There’s a piece of foam in the bottom of the pot to secure the branches a bit.  Then I covered that with some moss to hide the foam.  Voila!

Now let’s get started on those butterflies!

Supplies:

• fabric scraps (enough to make 8-14 butterflies)
• HeatnBond® Ultrahold (a 9″ x 17″ piece made 12 butterflies)
• sharp scissors
• iron
• Butterfly Applique Shapes

Step 1: Print the Butterfly Applique Shapes.  Using a pencil, trace 8 to 14 butterflies onto the paper side of the HeatnBond® Ultrahold.  (I used the tiny and small sizes of butterflies.)

Step 2:  Cut around each butterfly roughly, leaving about 1/4″ of space.

Step 3:  Iron each butterfly shape to the wrong side of a scrap of fabric.  Cut out butterflies, just a bit outside of the lines.  You can see in this photo that I stayed close to the lines, but cut just outside of them:

Step 4:  Peel off paper backings and then iron butterflies to the wrong side of another scrap of fabric.  This is where you can have some fun mixing and matching fabrics!

Step 5:  Carefully cut around the butterfly shape, just a bit inside of the first butterfly shape.  Nice, sharp scissors will be helpful here.  You now have a two-sided butterfly!

Step 6:  Fold each butterfly in half and press for 5 to 7 seconds to create a crease.  Unfold slightly and let cool.

Your lovely butterflies are now ready to adhere to the branches.  I used a dab of hot glue, and held the butterfly in place until it set.

Want to see what else you can do with these fabric butterflies?  I made some of the larger sizes and had fun finding new ways to use them around the house.  Hop on over to my blog to see more ideas!