Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter Decor

Spread your crafty wings and fly with this adorable DIY wood butterfly shelf sitter with a vintage vibe. This easy to make decor will take you from Spring, right on into your DIY Summer decor!

I have had this pack of wood butterflies in my stash for waaaayyyy too long. It’s about darn time that I turn them into something cute!

3 Wood Butterfly shelf sitter with a vintage vibe with a spring hangtag and twine and fabric bows, sitting on a base with spanish moss.

There are so many directions that you could take with this craft, depending on your style. And if you know me at all, I change my style as much as my underwear!

On this particular day, I was in a more vintage-y vibe, so vintage-y we went.

And I am SOOOO happy that I did! If you aren’t a VVP (Vintage Vibe Person – yes I just made that up), then you could go super fun and bright with typical springy colors and this project would be just as cute.

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Supplies needed to make a Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter

How to Make a Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter

I made this Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter on video. So you can WATCH the tutorial by clicking below.

Watch the video HERE

Here is the pack of Vintage Scrapbook paper that I went with to determine the whole vibe of how this project was going to go. Its a small 6×6 book, so perfect for the smaller butterflies.

I first stained the back and the outer edges of the 3 butterflies with Waverly Antique Wax and a baby wipe.

I then stained 4 wood shims as well (these were the 8″).

Stain the 4 wood shims with Antique wax.

When I lined up the 3 butterflies on the shims, the base ended up being a tad too long, so I trimmed the end of 2 of the shims so that it was the perfect size once I had them glued together.

Cut the wood shims to size so that the 3 butterflies fit on perfectly.

I then glued the shims together in two sets of two.

Add hot glue to one of the wood shims to glue them together.

So I applied hot glue to the top of one shim, and glued another on top, making sure the thick end lined up with the thin end, so that it makes one even wood base.

Glue two wood shims together to make one even base.

I then glued them together, end to end, to make one long base.

Glue the two sets of shims to each other to make one long base.

Next, I traced the wood butterflies onto 3 different pieces of scrapbook paper and cut them out.

Trace the wood butterflies onto the vintage scrapbook paper.

Apply the scrapbook paper to the butterfly using a thin layer of Mod Podge to decoupage it on top.

Apply the vintage scrapbook paper to the wood butterfly with mod podge decoupage method.

Sand off any excess paper using the best tool ever….a Gator Sander!

Using a gator sander to sand off the excess vintage scrapbook paper.

Using a finger dauber, apply the Kilz Dark Wax to the edges of the butterflies to distress and grunge it up.

Use a finger dauber to apply Kilz Dark Wax to the outer edges of the butterfly.

Glue a stick to the center of the butterfly to make the “body”.

Glue the stick to the center of the butterfly body.

Cut two small pieces of rusty wire for “antennas” and glue them to the top of the butterfly with E6000.

Glue the rusty wire antenna's to the top of the butterfly with E6000.

I made a messy fabric bow using my Bowdabra, but you can make any type of bow that you like. This bow is for the center Butterfly, as the main event, so I wanted it a little “more” then the other 2.

For the other 2 butterflies I made what I call my Twine “figure 8 bow”. Just wrap the twine around your fingers a bunch of times until it’s as big as you want.

Wrap twine around your fingers to make a bow.

And then tie a piece of twine around the center.

Tie a piece of twine around the center of the twine bow to make a figure 8 bow.

Glue the twine bows to the front center of 2 of the butterflies, and then glue a small button to the center of each.

Add the twine bow to the front of the wood butterfly.

To make the hangtag I layered muslin on top of kraft paper. I first stamped the word “Spring” onto a piece of muslin and then ripped that out.

Then glued the muslin to a piece of grunged up Kraft paper.

Gluing the muslin with the word spring to the kraft paper.

Add a loop of twine and glue the hangtag to the center of the messy fabric bow with a small button on top.

Add the "spring" hangtag and a button to the front of the fabric bow.

Now to put it together! Glue the butterflies standing up on the wood base lined up. We are going to add jenga blocks for reinforcement so don’t worry about them falling over.

Glue two Jenga blocks to the back of each butterfly to help then stand up and make them nice and sturdy.

Adding Jenga blocks to the back of the butterfly to make it stand up.

Finish it off by gluing a smidge of Spanish Moss around the bottom of the butterflies on the base.

Adding spanish moss to the base of the butterflies.

Here is the center butterfly all done!

Close up of one of the wood butterflies all done with the fabric bow, "spring" hangtag, and a button.

And a look at one of the outer butterflies too……

Close up of one of the wood butterflies all done with the twine bow and a button.

Here is a better look at how they are reinforced on the back.

Back of the wood butterfly showing the Jenga blocks holding it up.

Absolutely in LOVE with how this Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter turned out!

Are you going to make a Vintage Butterfly Shelf Sitter ? If you do, I’d love to see it! Pop on over to our free Craftspiration Facebook group, and join in on the fun by posting a pic of your Tiered Trays, DIY’s and crafts. I just love to see all your creative and crafty creations.

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