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Quilled Monarch Butterfly

February 28, 2018

This week’s post is brought to you by my horrible memory.

Backstory ~ I was looking through my sketches to start preparing my tutorials for March when I came across the mini butterfly that I had made for my Easter eggs last year.

At the end of that post, I promised I would share how I made the quilled monarch butterfly that I used on one of the eggs.

Almost a full year ago.

I had totally forgotten all about it!

But, as they say, there’s no time like the present…

So here goes!

This week, let’s make a mini quilled monarch butterfly.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the links below and make a purchase, I may receive a small compensation to help me finance this site and keep coming up with awesome tutorials and tips! There’s no cost to you and I only ever include links to companies and products that I trust and work with on a regular basis. 




Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

The monarch butterfly is known for it’s bold orange and white pattern, but the key to making it look as real as possible is how the black is added.

Each wing has 2 segments, and the left and right sides are mirror images of each other.

In this template I created, I separated the top and bottom of each wing to make life a little easier.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

Click on the image below to print your own butterfly template.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

Update: I’ve remade the butterfly template to clean it up a little bit so it will look slightly different from the one in the images on this post. But the design and the dimensions of the butterfly are exactly the same!

For the top, roll and shape 2 teardrops from 6″ orange strips, and 1 teardrop from a 4″ orange strip.

The bottom teardrops are made from 2 4″ strips of orange.

Once dry, wrap each teardrop twice with a black strip.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

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Place them over the teardrop shapes on the template with a thin line of glue between each and pin so they are pushed very close together.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

Next, roll 7 tight coils from 1 1/2″ strips of white.

Wrap each in 2″ of black and let dry.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

Line each up over the circles on the template.

Add a dot of glue at the places where the coils meet the teardrops.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

To round out the wings, add tight coils of black made from strips of 2″ or so.

There are no exact measurements for this step because sometimes the coils will need or be a tiny bit larger or smaller.

Don’t be afraid to make a mistake here.

In fact, when I was photographing this tutorial, I ended up needing one less coil on each wing than I had practiced!

It’s just paper, so if you have to roll a few extra coils to get the wing the way you’d like it, so be it.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

When all your shapes are set, wrap each segment with black.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com




When the 2 segments are completely dried, glue them together to form the whole wing.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

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Now you could stop right there, glue the 2 wings together and have an adorable mini quilled monarch butterfly to place on your next project.

Or, you could make a little body for your butterfly and mold the wings so they look like they’re in motion!

For the body of the quilled monarch butterfly, I used a variation of the technique used to make the long cones in this video.

The difference I made (obviously in addition to not making earrings) is the I let the paper build up a little at the base of the slotted tool before moving on to add length.

Once the quilling paper forms a small coil on the tool, gently pull up as you roll so the shape becomes a tube.

I found it helpful to brush a bit of glue every few turns once I started adding length.

When you’ve got the size that works for you, carefully rip the excess and glue the end to secure.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

I used this technique to make the butterfly body in two pieces.

One is a bit longer and thinner at the end than the other.

The wider end will be the head.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

Glue the two halves together with a thin line of glue.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

To make your wings look like they’re in flight, glue them together at an angle.

Wedge a few pins around the butterfly to keep it in shape as the glue dries.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

The quilled monarch butterfly body can be glued in place right where the wings meet.

Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com Quilling Paper Monarch Butterflies ~ Quick and simple butterflies in classic orange and black || www.ThePaperyCraftery.com

I just love the graphic quality of these little insects!

The orange and white are so bold against the black of the wings.

And the leaf green body acts as a neutral to ground it all.

Think about adding some to your summer quilling!

They’d also be sweet in one of the flower and vine hearts that I posted a couple weeks ago.

Do you have any projects in mind for these butterflies? Tell us about it in the comments below!





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in Quilling, Tutorials # paper bugs, Quilling insects, quilling monarch butterfly

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Comments

  1. Petite Vie (@Petitevieblog) says

    March 13, 2018 at 10:47 am

    That is so creative!!!

    http://www.petiteandpretty.com

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      March 13, 2018 at 2:40 pm

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  2. Amanda says

    May 22, 2021 at 3:11 pm

    So cute! I love how they came out!

    Reply
  3. Nancy Kelly says

    June 18, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    Hi Meredith, I discovered your channel by chance. you are so talented. So, I went out and purchased the material I need to get started. I make greeting card, dog portraits, and more. I am so impressed with your videos and how articulate you explain everything. I will be following your videos.

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      June 18, 2022 at 1:51 pm

      That’s so nice to hear! Thank you!

      Reply
  4. Sandra Power says

    September 15, 2023 at 1:40 pm

    Hi,
    You are so talented, Meredith. I love your work. You make it so easy.
    I’m getting better and better with my projects with quilling. Not a day goes by without learning something new.
    One day I hope I will be as good as you.
    Take care
    Sandra

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      September 26, 2023 at 4:30 pm

      That’s very kind of you 😊 Thank you so much!

      Reply

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