I’m excited to share this Butterfly Party Hat project today. This is something I worked on last year and so it’s fun to finally let it see the light of day. Sometimes I come up with a concept and when I actually go to make it, it doesn’t come together. With this one I made three different versions until I was happy with it. It’s really fun to put together the different colors and patterns. This would be great for a birthday party! See all the photos and instructions (including pdf templates) below!

Materials: Colored cardstock (we’ve got lots of colors in our shop!), party hat template, butterfly wing template, pencil, scissors, glue, elastic

Step 1: Research butterfly wings online to find inspiration for your wing patterns. Then cut out the butterfly wing templates. You can use the wing templates to draw out the wing pattern you want (or trace them onto a piece of printer paper and plan out your design there.)
Step 2: Trace the wing template onto 2 pieces of cardstock. (This will be your wing base, so make sure they’re the same color.)
Step 3: Now that you’re done with the wing template, you can use it to cut out the shapes for the inside of your wing pattern in corresponding cardstock colors. Just make sure you always cut out 2 of each shape (for each wing.)
Step 4: Glue the shapes onto both of the wing bases you traced earlier. Once the glue has dried, cut out the wings.
Step 5: Use the party hat template to build a party hat base (detailed instructions here) and attach elastic.
Step 6: Fold over the dedicated flaps on the wings and glue them onto the hat base in a slight diagonal. You want the top of the wings to meet at the top of the hat and the “body” of the butterfly to create a slight triangle. The wings will attach more to the front of the hat.

Photos by Sarah Hebenstreit for Oh Happy Day