Swarming Butterfly Chandeliers

Kelly Brown from Heartland Paper shows us how to make these beautiful Swarming Butterfly Chandeliers

Supplies you will need:

Butterfly punch, die-cut or Silhouette Digital Craft
Cutter for cutting images (We used the Silhouette to cut a 2 ½” butterfly.)

Paper in desired colors- you will need enough paper to cut 136 images (we used white cardstock and clear vellum for our butterflies)

14″ metal ring- you can use a metal wreath base or even a large embroidery hoop

15-20 yards of coordinating ribbon for tying around base

Fishing Line

Sturdy wire for cross hairs of chandelier

Glue Dots

Scissors

Tulle for hanging the chandelier from ceiling

Instructions:

1. Cross two wired in the center of your large circle base so that they meet in the middle of the circle. Wrap ends of wire around circle where they come in contact. This will create a cross in the circle so that you will have more surface to tie shapes to.

2. Tie ribbons in knots around circle base. This will give weight to the base of the chandelier and also cover up whatever your ring is made of. The closer your ribbons are, the more ribbon you will need, but the fuller it will be.

3. Begin cutting or punching butterflies from paper. You will need a total of 68 completed butterflies for your chandelier. We put a white cardstock and a clear vellum piece together for each butterfly, so we cut 68 of each.

4. Cut 17 pieces of fishing line to about 20″. Each piece of fishing line will have 4 butterflies attached to it.

5. Begin attaching butterflies to fishing line with glue dots. Place glue dots in the center (body) of each butterfly. Run the fishing line up the body and then attach the front piece of the butterfly over the top. This will create a sandwich for the fishing line. Place butterflies about 3-4 inches apart on the line. Leave plenty of extra line at the top of the butterflies so that you will be able to tie it on to the ring at the right height.

6. When you have attached all of your butterflies to the line, begin tying them on to your base. You will tie on butterflies at three levels. The one piece of line that is tied at the cross point in the middle should be the longest. Then, you should tie one line to the center of each of the wire spokes slightly higher than the second piece. The rest of the lines should be tied around the outer ring slightly higher than those in the middle. Each quarter of the outside circle will have 3 lines tied to it (one at each point of the cross and two between each point).

7. Use tulle tied to each cross point to hang the chandelier from the ceiling or other area. (We tied a large bow at the top to create a soft fluffy look.

*Notes: This chandelier can be made with a variety of different shapes and papers to create a look that will match your room perfectly. Consider punching circles, flowers, stars, etc. to create a unique look.

*Look for a special Halloween Chandelier Kit coming soon on the Heartland Paper Blog www.heartlandpaper.com