Garden Art Butterfly Recycled Project

Garden Art Butterfly Recycled Project

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb and you can make it in one afternoon.

There are also many more recycled projects here.

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DIY Water Bottle Butterfly

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

This project was requested by a reader who wanted to find a use for a metal water bottle that was warped and no longer useful. The challenge, as always with metal projects, is to find a way to make them without requiring welding or smelly adhesives.

I’ll walk you through the process.

Supplies & Materials

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

I used:

• Aluminum flashing (used for roof repairs) – see it here on Amazon
  I made use of the leftover from this Giant Garden Art Coneflower project.
• Old water bottle
• Lightbulb (burned out, of course)
• Shoelace
• Metal washers
• Fine wire and beads for antennae
• GE Silicone II Sealant for gutters and flashing (to attach lightbulb and antenae)
• Silver spray paint (for lightbulb)
• Hammer and Phillips screwdriver (to create design on wings)
• Scissors for cutting aluminum flashing
• Large newspaper (for wing pattern)
• Measuring tape
• Sharpie marker
• Gloves, safety goggles

Steps

Wings

Make a wing pattern with paper, trace onto metal, and cut out wings.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

Tips

• I allowed room for a middle section between the wings to wrap around 3/4 of the water bottle. My water bottle was just over 9-inches in diameter. The middle section of my wings is 6-inches.
• The size of your metal sheeting will determine how tall the wings can be. Mine are 14″.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

Design

Create decorative designs on the wings using a hammer and awl or screwdriver tip. A ballpoint pen works for drawing fine guide lines as needed.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

Assemble

To attach the wings to the water bottle, I punched several holes in the metal, and threaded a long shoe lace through. I added washers both for function and appearance, to prevent the metal from bending or tearing when the laces are pulled tight.

Here’s a look at the shoelace from the back of the butterfly:

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

If you like the way the shoelace looks, you could make it the front of the butterfly. It’s got the corset vibe going on.

The lightbulb was spray-painted silver. I created fine antennae with wire and two red beads on the ends. The wire is glued to the lightbulb (head) with dabs of adhesive. I use GE II Silicone Sealant. You could also use a glue gun if this project is not expected to stay outside all year-round. Adhesive was also used to secure the lightbulb to the water bottle.

The laces on the back of the butterfly provide lots of options for hooking the butterfly to a post or fall, or suspending it from a tree branch.

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

And that’s it.

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For more on punched metal crafts, see these Soda Can Charms.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

This DIY garden art butterfly is made from an old metal water bottle and a lightbulb.

Original article and pictures take empressofdirt.net site