Add a touch of whimsy to your DIY home decor, birthday party, wedding, baby shower, window display, or other special event with butterfly centerpieces!
Bring the magic of nature indoors with a butterfly tree display. This easy butterfly craft and DIY decor project transforms bare branches, paper, and a little creativity into a beautiful centerpiece you can enjoy year-round. Whether you’re decorating your home, setting a party table, or planning a special event, a butterfly tree, or several butterfly centerpieces can add color, movement, and a touch of wonder.
Making a butterfly tree is an easy and fun way to add spring or summer DIY decor to your home, event, or store window display. Butterfly centerpieces like the one in the photographs for this tutorial make a great decoration for a wedding, butterfly-themed birthday party, baby shower, memorial, anniversary party, or another special event in the spring or summer.
Like butterflies, butterfly centerpieces symbolize transformation, renewal, and rebirth. As such, they are often associated with change, hope, and new beginnings. My family enjoys using our butterfly tree as a centerpiece on our dining table for special occasions in the spring and summer. When it’s not on the dining table, I like to keep it as a display on the nature table.
First published on June 6, 2016, this step-by-step butterfly tree DIY tutorial is regularly updated to improve its content. Learn how to make and decorate a butterfly tree with the step-by-step instructions below! You might also enjoy making these DIY Monarch Butterfly Peg Doll crafts.
Related: DIY Projects for Do-It-Yourself Families
How to Make a Butterfly Tree Centerpiece Display:
This DIY butterfly decor is easy to make, flexible in design, and fun for all ages to put together and decorate. Best of all, you can choose from the recommended craft supply options below or make it your own.
Use real or craft branches with or without lights. Choose soft pastel colors for spring, bright colors for birthdays, or elegant tones for weddings. Experiment with different designs or arrangements. Add handmade butterflies, keepsake notes, or even photos.
A DIY butterfly tree makes a gorgeous party decoration or centerpiece for dining tables, entry tables, nature tables, weddings, and special events. Children love decorating them as much as Christmas trees!
My daughter loves decorating trees so much that we have a tree we decorate for every season. We turn our Easter egg tree into this gorgeous butterfly tree after Easter, decorate a thankful tree in the Fall, and make our own ornaments to decorate a Christmas tree in the winter.
Butterfly trees make gorgeous party decorations and DIY centerpieces for weddings, memorials, and other special occasions. Just imagine butterflies
flying everywhere in your home at your party or another event! Gather the supplies in the next section, and follow the step-by-step instructions below to make this easy DIY decoration and centerpiece.
DIY Butterfly Tree Supplies
- Collect or buy bare branches, or a twig tree (Choose one of the following options to create a DIY butterfly tree):
- Natural dried decorative branches
- Artificial bare branches
- Artificial White Birch Branches with Lights
- Or a small white Twig Tree with or without lights.
- Natural dried decorative branches
- Vase (Not needed if you are using a twig tree.)
- A vase filler to keep the branches upright and the vase weighted so it doesn’t fall down (This will not be needed if you use a twig tree instead of branches.) Choose one of the following recommended options:
- Floral feather butterflies or another type of butterfly decoration, craft, or ornament. You can also use bees or dragonflies. Choose one of the following optional supplies or make your own decorations:
- Assorted monarch butterflies,
- Colorful feather butterflies on picks
- Bees
- Floral dragonflies on picks
- Foam feather bird clips
 
Related: Butterfly Sensory Bottle Calm Down Jar
DIY Butterfly Centerpieces Step-by-Step Directions:
Use the step-by-step instructions below to make beautiful butterfly centerpieces for your home, workplace, or special event. Invite kids, family, friends, or co-workers to help you make and decorate this butterfly craft.
1. Collect or purchase bare branches for the butterfly tree Craft:
- Go on a nature hunt to collect some small bare branches for your DIY butterfly tree. Kids love this activity!
- If going on a nature hunt for bare branches is not your thing, you can purchase bare branches, white branches, or a small twig tree instead.
instead.2. Paint branches white (optional):
- Leave bare branches natural, or spray-paint them white, as shown in the photographs.
- Allow the paint to dry before progressing to the next step if you choose this option.
- Skip this step if you purchase white branches or use a twig tree.
3. Put bare branches in a vase to create A tree for the butterflies:
- Place the branches in a vase and arrange them to your liking.
- Skip this step if you are using a twig tree.
and arrange them to your liking.4. Add filler to the vase:
- Add sand, pebbles, or another vase filler to fill in the spaces around the branches, secure the branches, and weigh the centerpiece down so the vase does not tip over from the weight of the branches or when you decorate the butterfly tree.
- Skip this step if you are using a twig tree.
, pebbles
, or another vase filler to fill in the spaces around the branches, secure the branches, and weigh the centerpiece down so the vase does not tip over from the weight of the branches or when you decorate the butterfly tree.5. Attach pom-poms to butterfly tree branches (optional):
- Glue pom-poms in spring or summer colors onto the branches of your bare-branch tree so it looks similar to this Thankful Tree. (optional)
in spring or summer colors onto the branches of your bare-branch tree so it looks similar to this 6. Place butterflies on the tree to decorate it:
- Invite children, friends, or family to decorate the butterfly tree.
- Wrap the wire picks around the branches to make it look like the butterflies are perched on the tree and flying around it. Secure with glue if desired.
- Smooth out the butterflies’ wings and ensure you like the way they are arranged on the branches of the butterfly tree craft.
- Alternatively, hang homemade butterfly crafts and ornaments.
- Decorating a tree with butterflies, bees, dragonflies, or even birds makes lovely DIY home decor, a window display, or a gorgeous centerpiece for a wedding, birthday party, or another special event!
Related: How to Make an Easter Tree
DIY Centerpiece for Homes and Weddings
A DIY Butterfly tree is more than a decoration. It’s a lovely piece of art that can tell a story of transformation, hope, and new beginnings.
You can display a butterfly centerpiece on a dining table, entry table, summer nature table, or as a focal point at a party or special event. Butterflies add a gorgeous spring or summer element to your home decor or shop window. Butterfly trees also make a simple DIY party decoration for birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, and other special events.
When my husband and I ran a daycare out of our home several years ago, our butterfly tree was always a favorite with the little ones. If you have toddlers or preschoolers around, please make sure you put this beautiful tree far out of reach, or your children might handle the butterflies. You might also enjoy making and decorating a Thankful Tree with clay gratitude leaves.
Learn more about Nell Regan Kartychok, author, photographer, and creator of this original DIY Butterfly tree project tutorial HERE, and about Rhythms of Play HERE!
DIY Centerpiece Ideas:
- How to Make a Thankful Tree with Real Leaves
- DIY Thankful Tree with Clay Gratitude Leaves
- How to Make an Easter Tree Centerpiece
- Top 10 Thankful Trees For Thanksgiving
Butterfly Craft Ideas
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OMG this looks so nice! Just a wonderful idea and looks simple enough to do it by yourself. Thank you for sharing this.
So glad you like it, Mandy! It is super simple to make, a lot of fun, and looks gorgeous when finished. Enjoy!
COMO HAGO LAS MARIPOSAS
Great question Teresa,
These types of butterflies are sold attached to wire that you wrap around the branch to hang the butterflies. Another option is to make your own butterfly crafts and hang them with string, ribbon, fishing line, or attach them with tape. I hope that helps!