Discovering 2014: Butterfly Ribbon Sculpture

Discovering 2014 is a personal goal to complete a daily project throughout the year!

Today's project was a Butterfly Ribbon Sculpture. I've made butterfly hair clips in the past (seen here),but this time I took a different approach to making it, using this pin as an example.

Supplies

• (3) 8" long 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (matching color)
• (3) 7" long 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (matching color)
• (3) 6" long 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (matching color)
• (1) 2 1/4" long 3/8" grosgrain ribbon (coordinating color)
• (2) 2 1/4" long pipe cleaners (coordinating color)
• covered hair clip (coordinating color)
• hot glue gun
• needle and thread (optional)

The objective is to nest the three wing colors inside each other, as shown below. I preferred to stitch them together with needle and thread. This is the most time consuming part of the build. Do this for all three wing sections.

I hot glued one wing section together, just to show why I prefer using thread and needle for some of these ribbon projects. The hot glued one is on the left and the stitched one is on the right. It's not wrong to hot glue it and sometimes it's preferable, but for some things it gives a too bulky feel, in my opinion!

After you have all three assembled, hot glue them together in the centers.

Use your smaller coordinating piece and wrap it around the center, hot gluing it closed.

Prep your pipe cleaner antennae and covered hair clip! I use my round-nose pliars to curve the pipe cleaners.

Attach the wings and antennae to your covered hair clip and you have a cute butterfly!