I'll admit, I started folding hundreds of origami butterflies in a few sizes for out community women's Purim party, with no actual plan other than maybe some colorful paper clouds and a sky filled with butterflies. I started to think about how I could assemble something at home to make the job on-site quicker, and all of sudden I found myself cutting circles from cardboard boxes and then pom-pom butterfly medallions with metallic gold pipe cleaner trim were born! I did make a much larger size as well as this size with blue pom poms and a lavender butterfly in the middle, and truly just about any color combo works! At the party I hot glued the medallions to a disposable tablecloth for the stage set, and yes this was quite a labor of love, and will use everything again next year as it was all carefully dismantled after the party and is already in boxes. I did save a few medallions to hang in my home, and this one is now sitting on these painted butterfly boxes, (tuturial how to paint these 2-stroke butterflies here) while a few others are clipped onto a garland with some large paper butterflies and a few origami lemons left over from Tu B'Shevat, and that is how it rolls around here lately. Okay, time is of the essence, lets make an origami butterfly medallion, which come to think of it could be great hung around the neck of a child dressed as a butterfly, check out a simple yet great looking butterfly costume here.
Okay, the butterflies are calling......
- recycled cardboard, from a box, you could even find colored cardboard and then not need to paint the circles
- acrylic craft paint
- medium sized craft pom poms
- metallic gold pipecleaners
- origami butterflies, instructions here
- a hot glue gun
- a dinner sized plate to trace around and then a large round tray to make a larger size
How To:
Assemble medallions according to the proportions you see here, namely a butterfly with just enough space around him, and most importantly a big enough cardboard circle so the the pipe cleaner border is NOT glued to the edge, the way I've done it makes it much much more elegant, even though the difference seems negligable!
Ah yes, and of course these butterfly medallions would make great room decor for kids or babies, right?
