Decorating with paper butterflies can easily turn a drab room into a fun, whimsical environment. Plus, they make great gifts and accessories, particularly for children. However, trying to make butterflies with standard printer paper is not always the best idea. If the paper is too thin, your butterflies could get damaged before you’ve even had a chance to show them off. Fortunately, cardstock butterflies are generally much sturdier, and give you more room to express your creativity.
But why does cardstock work better when making DIY butterflies? What are the steps you need to follow to make beautiful butterfly wings? Finally, where can you find high-quality cardstock to jumpstart your butterfly craft project?
In today’s guide, we will answer all of these questions and more. So, let’s get started!
Why Cardstock Is Popular For DIY Butterflies
You may wonder why cardstock is the best choice for DIY butterflies. The truth is that thousands of creatives prefer cardstock because it strikes a happy medium between thin, flimsy printer paper, and thick, cumbersome paperboard. This balance between durability and flexibility helps make cardstock a top choice for many arts and crafts projects.
But why exactly do these features of cardstock work so well with butterflies? It’s simple. Artists often look at the true nature of their subjects before recreating them. Butterflies are naturally delicate, but they also have large, strong wings made of chitin. Chitin is a sturdy material, capable of quickly propelling butterflies into the air. Therefore, when recreating butterflies, it’s important to pick a material that can capture both the fragile and powerful characteristics of butterfly wings.
This is where cardstock comes in. You can slice through cardstock paper in seconds with a simple pair of scissors or a Cricut machine. At the same time, cardstock is far more durable than most kinds of writing or printing paper. This ensures that your beautiful creations won’t get destroyed while you work. The extra thickness also makes it easier to add a variety of colors to the wings with ink, paint, glitter, or even bits of color paper.
The Best Cardstock For Butterflies
Since you want to strike a balance when creating butterflies, particularly when it comes to the wings, you’ll need to figure out which cardstock is best for the job. Generally, cardstock is divided by a few different qualities, namely size, color, and weight. The size is typically not as important when making butterflies; you’ll just need to ensure that you acquire pieces large enough to make the wings. Depending on how you plan to use your DIY butterflies, you may want tiny wings or enormous wings. If it’s a large-scale project, you might have to use more than one piece of cardstock to create each wing.
However, for the vast majority of DIY butterfly projects, the color and weight of the cardstock are the most important features to consider. When it comes to color, you have a fair amount of creative liberty with the palette you choose. For example, you may want the wings to have a solid color, in which case you can pick cardstock with the color of your choice. Alternatively, you may just want the cardstock to serve as a base color so that you can decorate it with even more patterns and hues. In any case, some of the most popular colors for cardstock butterflies are red, yellow, orange, pink, blue, green, and purple.
The most important factor when choosing the best cardstock for your project is the weight. Cardstock weight is used to determine the thickness of the paper, and this can be measured in pounds per 500 sheets or GSM (grams per square meter). Let’s take a look at some of the most common weight categories to see which one will fit your needs:
- Light Cardstock – Light cardstock is generally any cardstock that measures between 59 and 65 lbs (160 and 175 GSM). This is the same kind of cardstock that you might find in certain notebooks, particularly those designed for sketching. Light cardstock works well if you don’t plan to use any coloring, as ink or paint will likely bleed right through the paper.
- Medium Cardstock – Medium cardstock is easy to cut while offering a slightly sturdier base than light alternatives. It typically measures between 65 and 80 lbs (175 and 215 GSM). This is closer to standard printer paper, which means that it may still be a little thin for certain arts and crafts projects.
- Heavy Cardstock – As the name implies, heavy cardstock is heavier than medium cardstock, with measurements that typically range between 80 and 100 lbs (215 and 270 GSM). This cardstock is often good for butterflies and similar art projects, as it is still relatively easy to shape with a Cricut and is thick enough to handle light ink.
- Heavier Cardstock – Finally, heavy cardstock may be any cardstock higher than 100 lbs in thickness, though some manufacturers measure the heavier cardstock between 110 and 140 lbs (298 and 378 GSM). This range of cardstock works very well for butterflies, though you should note that it will be a little more difficult to cut. However, if you plan to use paint or heavy ink, you should plan to use cardstock that is at least 130 lbs.
As you can see, thicker (heavier) cardstocks are generally the best options for DIY butterflies. They are still thin enough to cut and display the fragility of butterfly wings, but strong enough to handle various coloration methods.
How To Make Simple Cardstock Butterflies
While you can trace and cut out cardstock butterflies by hand, the quickest method requires a Cricut machine. This way, you can use a template image or SVG file to cut the exact shape you want. But in the event that you don’t have access to a Cricut machine, here are the steps you can follow to make cardstock butterflies by hand:
- Print an image (to size) of a butterfly on regular printer paper
- Cut the outline of the image to use as a stencil
- Trace the outline onto the cardstock
- Carefully cut along the traced lines
- Style your cardstock butterfly with paint, ink, glitter, or markers
How To Make 3D Butterflies Out Of Cardstock
Making 3D butterflies requires a bit more practice, as you’ll need to learn the proper steps to create a pleated or origami butterfly. Additionally, you’ll need to make sure that your cardstock is thin enough to fold multiple times. Remember that there are dozens of different ways to make 3D butterflies, but here are the steps you can follow to make one without any cutting required:
- Fold a square piece of cardstock in half along all 4 sides so that you’re left with 4 square sections when you unfold it again
- Now fold the cardstock in half diagonally using the same method
- Press together the middle creases and fold the cardstock down into a triangle
- Turn the triangle upside down and fold the left and right corners so that they meet the bottom point
- Flip the triangle right side up again and fold the bottom half up, leaving a small portion of the top point visible
- The top point should be made up of two different folds; curl the top fold back down over the base of the triangle
- Pull down the back fold so that it can create the bottom wings
- If you find that the paper is unfolding, feel free to use tape or glue to help it maintain the shape of a butterfly
- Style your cardstock butterfly with paint, ink, glitter, or markers
Ready to start your next project? Check out our high-quality cardstock today, and let us know how you put our cardstock to good use!