Emperor's Landing

Flatbacked Butterfly Paper Lantern DIY

Skill LevelBeginner

TechniqueCrystal Rhinestones

Time1-3 Hours

Delicate paper butterflies with sparkling flatbacks are the perfect embellishment to a paper lantern. author signature

This fun lantern is perfect for warm summer nights relaxing on the back porch or for poolside birthday parties. We decorated ours with butterflies in shades of soft lilac, lime green and blush pink among other colors using matching flatbacks and thick scrapbooking paper. Choose your favorite colors and follow any theme you like Purchase a round paper lantern at any craft or party store to get started.

Step-by-Step Instructions Expand All Steps

Cut your favorite butterfly shapes out of colored paper. We have a PDF file of the cutouts that you can use for the butterflies in this design. Vary the sizes to create more dimension on your lantern. Using Gem-Tac permanent adhesive, glue your flatbacks to the butterflies in a random fashion. Use a jewel setter to help place the flatbacks appropriately.

Cutout Butterflies PDF

Attach your finished butterflies to the lantern with Quick Hold craft adhesive in a decorative pattern across the surface. Allow to dry thoroughly.

Cut your jewelry wire into three pieces of different length to hang from the bottom of your lantern. We cut ours approximately 10 to 12 inches long. Attach a crimp tube to one end of each strand in order to hold your beads in place. We suggest using 2x2mm crimp tubes.

String your favorite beads onto the jewelry wire in your chosen pattern and attach each strand to the wire expander on the bottom of the lantern using crimp tubes. Slide a crimp tube onto the wire, loop each open jewelry wire end over the wire expander and crimp it with a crimp tube to hold the wire in place. Randomly glue a few more decorated butterflies to each jewelry strand to create a mobile effect.

List of Components:
Bead Crimper Tool (TOOL-100)Nipper Tool (TOOL-101)Quick Hold craft Adhesive 2oz Tube (GLUE-002)Gem-Tac permanent adhesive (GEMTAC)Artbeads Designer 49 .019 30ft Jewelry Wire (ZP49-30F-019)Jewel Setter (2 Pack) (TOOL-170)

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Nice choice! All or most of the products needed for this project are shown below with quantities. Sometimes we sell out of components and aren’t able to order more from the manufacturer (we know, it is very disappointing to us, too). Use the opportunity to mix up the design and make it yours by substituting similar products or altering the entire color scheme—it’s up to you!