If you've been hoarding paper scraps and off-cuts with no clear plan for them, this tutorial is for you. I show how to make layered paper butterfly embellishments from whatever bits of scrap paper you have on hand — book pages, tea-dyed paper, vellum, scrapbook strips, cereal bag plastic, catalog pages — and how to take the same basic technique in a dozen different directions, from a simple two-layer butterfly with a brad to a full five-layer sewn mini booklet.
What we cover
Starting from a folded heart-cut method and building through layering, inking, machine sewing, and decorative finishing, I walk through several variations — including a butterfly belly band, a butterfly pocket, a little sewn notebook, and a chained butterfly decoration. There's also a section on using natural-dyed papers (avocado, tea, coffee, onion skin) to get a vintage tonal range across your layers.
What you'll learn
How to cut layered butterfly wings from a folded heart shape, including:
- Drawing on the wrong side of the paper so pencil outlines stay hidden
- Leaving a gap at the bottom of the heart so the wings don't meet — that space is what gives the butterfly its shape
- Using your smallest finished shape as a template to trace each successive larger layer, keeping the proportions consistent
How to build up layers — two, three, or five — and keep them aligned Start with the smallest shape and work outward. Once all your layers are cut and inked, a tiny dab of glue in the center crease holds everything together before you take it to the sewing machine. Without it, the layers shift and the stitch line goes crooked.
How to add a paper strip body, including:
- Folding a scrapbook paper strip and trimming to fit
- Using a glue stick to temporarily hold the strip centered before sewing
- Running a straight stitch or zigzag stitch through the center with a sewing machine
How to finish and embellish the wings, with options like:
- Brads in the center (which also let you attach the butterfly to a card and remove it later)
- Pearl stickers, button stickers, or small decorative stickers
- Inking the edges with ink for a finished, vintage-style border
How to make a butterfly mini booklet — the same layered method scaled up to five layers, with larger shapes and varying tones of dyed paper. Once stacked and aligned along the center crease, a single machine-sewn line through the middle creates a booklet with surprisingly usable writing pages. I made the decision to have mine open sideways rather than like a traditional booklet — once you see the other orientation you'll understand why.
How to use butterflies as journal embellishments, including:
- Gluing the lower portion down on a page so the wings lift and you have a small pocket or tuck spot underneath
- Mounting onto a catalog page strip to create a belly band
- Chaining multiple butterflies together by sewing them in a row with a little space between each one
- Placing a butterfly on a plain card with a brad so it can be removed and reused by whoever receives it
How to work with natural-dyed papers for tonal layering — avocado-dyed paper gives a soft pink; tea and coffee dyes give warm creams and browns; onion skin adds a slightly deeper golden tone. Layering these together creates a much more interesting result than using papers that are all the same value.
Tips & gotchas
Always draw your heart shape on the wrong side of the paper. It sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget when you're working quickly, and pencil lines showing through on the finished wings are annoying to deal with after the fact.
Leave a genuine gap at the bottom of the heart where the two halves meet. This is what creates the separation between the wings — if the points touch, it reads as a heart, not a butterfly.
When you're stacking layers before sewing, a small dab of glue right at the center crease makes a real difference. The layers look stable when you're holding them, but the moment they go through a sewing machine foot, they'll shift unless something is holding them. The glue doesn't need to be permanent — just enough to keep things centered for the stitch.
The same logic applies to the paper strip body. A glue stick pass before sewing keeps it from creeping sideways as the machine feeds the paper through. If you're not sewing at all and just gluing the strip down, swap the glue stick for something stronger.
Build your layers from smallest to largest, not the other way around. Start by cutting your smallest shape, then use that as the template to draw your next size up, and so on. Trying to work from large to small means you lose control of the proportional relationship between layers.
Don't overthink the embellishment step. I spent too long staring at my brads wondering which one to use, and that's the part of the process where it's easiest to stall. Make a batch of base butterflies first, then come back and embellish. You'll have more momentum and better ideas once you're not making every decision at once.
The technique stays the same; it's really just a question of scale and what you do with the sewn center. I started with one and then couldn't stop, which is usually a sign that a project is worth sharing.
