Butterfly Lantern by Fleurette F Bloom

April 23, 2012

I absolutely adore lanterns so when I saw the Garden Nouveau SVG Kit - Butterfly Lantern, I knew I had to make one. I decided to make it a hanging lantern that looked like little butterflies were flying out of it.

SVG Collections Used

Garden Nouveau SVG Kit

Supplies Used

Paper
Glue
Adhesive tape
Pliers
Pointed stylus
Tape
Ribbon (optional)
Silver Floral Stem Wire 18"L

Dimensions

Garden Nouveau SVG Kit (Butterfly Lantern)	Size	Paper Color
Lantern1.svg cut 1	8.000" W X 6.939" H	White
Lanterns.svg cut 1	8.000" W X 9.544" H	White
Butterfly.svg cut 1	7.783" W X 8.304 H	White
Butterfly_bottom.svg (Cut 38)	2.267" W X 1.601" H	White
Butterfly_bottom.svg (Cut 1)	5.199" W X 7.223" H	Translucent (so light shines through)
lanters_colors.svg (Cut 1 - these are the two bottom pieces)	8.000" W X 2.074" H	Translucent (so light shines through)

Instructions

Fleurette - SVGCuts Design Team Artist

Cut all files listed
Assemble Butterfly Lantern as shown in the assembly video (omitting butterfly_colors1.svg and butterfly_colors2.svg)
Emboss half of the small butterflies
Use your pointed stylus to poke 4 small holes in the bottom of your lantern (see photo above)
Use 4 of the 18" floral stem wires and twist the top 3" of them together
Use your pliers to wrap the ends so there are no sharp edges
Bend the wire to form a hook at the top (see photo above)
Wrap ribbon around the hook end and glue it down (this is optional)
Take the wire you twisted and feed the pointed ends through the wholes you made in the bottom of your lantern (thread them through the center of your lantern
Bend a 1/4", 90% angle in each wire, after you have threaded them through the holes (see photo)
Use some scotch tape to adhere the wire to the bottom of the lantern (if you would like a more finished look, you can glue a square piece of paper to the bottom of your lantern, after this step)
Using your adhesive tape, adhere the small butterflies to the wires, sandwiching the wire between, one embossed butterfly and one plain butterfly (only tape the centers)- start from the bottom and work your way up to the top (stagger them to give it a better look) Open the butterflies to give it a fluttery look.

Design Tips

Embossing adds that extra touch
When you have multiples of the same thing, stagger them to make the overall project more visually appealing!

Lanterns make amazing gifts and add a touch of elegance to any room. Hope you enjoy making this hanging butterfly lantern as much as I did. Be creative and most importantly, have fun :)