Upcycle an Old Book into Charming Rustic Butterfly Decorations — Easy Step-by-Step DIY

Upcycle an old book into charming rustic butterfly decorations using simple supplies like vintage keys, twine and a hot glue gun. This quick DIY adds handmade, vintage character to walls, windows or gift wrap and is a great way to give worn books a new life.

This project is beginner-friendly and lets you customize scale, layering and how you display the butterflies. Follow the steps below and enjoy the creative process.

Materials

• Old book
• Butterfly stencil
• Keys
• Twine or other rustic string
• Tools
• Hot glue and glue gun
• Scissors

Instructions

Begin by cutting out your butterfly stencils in two different sizes so that you can trace around them.

Finished rustic butterfly ornament made from layered book pages and a vintage key — a ready-to-hang upcycled accent.

Place your butterfly stencil on book pages and trace the outlines to create consistent shapes.

Gather the pages you want to upcycle — torn, yellowed or printed pages all create a vintage look.

Tear out a few pages from an old book to work with. How many you need depends on how many butterflies you plan to make.

A small stack of torn book pages is all you need to make several butterflies.

For each butterfly, trace around both the large stencil and the small one on the book page so that you have two butterfly shapes in two different sizes.

Trace two sizes for a layered effect: one larger base and a smaller top layer.

Cut out the butterfly shapes from the old book pages.

Use sharp scissors to carefully cut around your traced outlines.

Layer the smaller cutout on top of the larger to give the butterfly dimension.

Apply hot glue to the top of one of the larger butterfly shapes, and then attach the smaller butterfly shape on top of it. This becomes a single butterfly with more of a “3D” effect than it would have if we’d simply used one shape to create it. Do this step repeatedly to create as many butterflies as you want.

Carefully use a hot glue gun to secure the layers; work on a protected surface.

Attach a key with hot glue to add a rustic, weighty focal point to each butterfly.

Apply hot glue to one of the keys, and then attach that to one of the paper butterflies.

Repeat assembly to build a small collection of matching or varied butterflies.

Rinse and repeat to create as many butterflies as you want

Run some twine through the hole at the top of the key so that you can hang up the rustic butterfly decoration. Again, do this with all of the old book butterflies you have created.

Thread twine through the key hole to create a hanger — knot to secure.

Hang several butterflies at different lengths for a clustered display.

You can hang single ornaments or group them on a branch, curtain rod or wall hook.

You can now hang your rustic old book butterfly decorations anywhere!

Close-up detail showing the layered paper and printed text for a vintage effect.

A set of finished rustic book-page butterflies ready to hang or gift.