How To Make A Vintage DIY Christmas Butterfly Ornament

Give your holiday tree a touch of vintage charm with this DIY butterfly ornament made from up-cycled tuna cans and vintage natural history illustrations. The tutorial guides you through painting or decoupaging the tins, selecting butterfly printables, and assembling a miniature display that’s stylish, recycled and full of character.

I started this blog because I love vintage maps and natural history images. As a child, I spent many hours pouring over pictorial encyclopedias. I have made this DIY butterfly Christmas ornament to reflect my interest.

I chose the vintage butterfly images from the hundreds of natural history pictures on Pictureboxblue because of their colours.

You can use any vintage natural history images on Pictureboxblue to make these upcycled Christmas ornaments. I think the tuna can ornaments will look just as good with one of the many gorgeous bird illustrations or flower paintings on the site.

Or you might want to use more festive images, such as poinsettias, penguins, and polar bears, or vintage Scandinavian Christmas cards.

Making Upcycled Tuna Can Vintage Image Ornaments

The DIY butterfly Christmas ornament uses stuff you likely already have at home. So no need to make an expensive trip to the craft store.

I upcycled old tuna cans for the main body of the ornaments, decorating them with dictionary pages, old Christmas gift wrap scraps, and free butterfly images from Pictureboxblue.

Last year, I also made some upcycled Christmas baubles using dictionary paper and an advent calendar. An old dictionary goes a long way and is a very cheap source of craft paper.

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What You Need To Make A Christmas Butterfly Ornament

• Old round tuna cans - the normal small-sized ones or any other tin cans of a similar size. You could use sardine cans if you want rectangular-shaped Christmas ornaments.
• Old dictionary pages - Check out your local thrift/charity shop. One dictionary provides hundreds of pages for crafting.
• Scraps of Christmas gift wrap or Christmas craft paper.
• Mod Podge or other paper glue
• Papercutting knife
• Compass paper cutter
• Cork tile/mat
• Insect Specimen pins
• Wire or ribbon for hanging
• Cream or white paint

The Vintage Butterfly Images

I selected the images for this DIY butterfly Christmas ornament from the book "Illustrations of exotic entomology: containing upwards of six hundred and fifty figures and descriptions of foreign insects, interspersed with remarks and reflections on their nature and properties" by Dru Dury, 1837.

Choose from twelve different butterflies. Click the title of the butterfly sheet to download it to your device. If you still want more butterfly images, check out the images used for this DIY butterfly art decoration.

The butterflies are the right size for an upcycled tuna can ornament if printed on a standard sheet of A4 computer paper.

Butterfly Sheet One

Butterfly Sheet 2

DIY Christmas Butterfly Ornament Tutorial

Step 1: I first cut a piece of cork to fit the base of the tuna can. This gives you somewhere to stick the specimen pins in.

Top tip: The tuna tin cans I used were ring-pull ones and didn't have any sharp edges. If your cans have sharp edges, file them smooth.

Step 2: Paint the tuna cans inside and out. Even though the tin cans will be decoupaged with paper, the edges and rims will still be visible.

I used white spray paint, but red or green would also work well for the Christmas ornaments. If you use spray paint, remember to do it in a well-ventilated space. (I do all my spray painting in the garden).

Step 3: Next, glue the cork to the inside of the tuna can. Then cut dictionary paper to fit the base of the can and the inside rim. Secure the paper with decoupage glue.

I used a compass paper cutter to cut the circular paper base. However, you can draw around the tin can and then use scissors to cut out the round shape.

Step 4: Next, decoupage the outside of the tin can with Christmas paper. Old wrapping paper scraps work well. Again, cut out a paper round for the can's base. Then, cut a strip of Christmas paper to go around the rim.

Step 5: Next, print the butterfly sheet you want to use. I recommend using photo matte paper and selecting the best-quality print option in your print menu settings.

Using a paper-cutting knife, carefully cut out the butterfly you want for the Christmas ornament.

Step 6: Then place the butterfly into the tin can. Use two specimen pins, one in each wing, to hold the insect in place.

Step 7: Finish the butterfly Christmas ornaments by wrapping the tuna tin in either wire or ribbon for hanging.

I love this DIY butterfly Christmas ornament so much that I ended up making three in total.

Luckily, my husband loves tuna mayo sandwiches, so I will get many more tin cans to upcycle into Christmas ornaments. For the next batch, I will use some dragonfly images on Pictureboxblue. You can also use the tin cans to make shadow box displays like this DIY Halloween diorama.

If you are looking for ways to use maps on ornaments, check out these embroidered map baubles.

These butterfly images would also be great for decoupage placemats.