Paper Lantern Butterfly House

This Paper Lantern Butterfly House is perfect for hatching butterflies! Especially handy as you can hang it safely away from pets and overly inquisitive two year old toddlers ;).

We found a Chrysalis in our veggie patch, luckily my daughter spotted it before she ATE the fresh piece of spinach! We decided keep it and see what would hatch out…we needed a Bug House! I was trying to think of what we might have at home to make one with…I was on the phone to Jenni to see if she had one we could borrow when I looked up at the paper lanterns hanging in my daughter’s bedroom…that’s the moment when the inspiration hit me!

What we used – 

• A paper lantern (purchased from our local $2 Store)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Small plastic dish or bowl
• 1 meter of tulle or mosquito netting (we happened to have some pink tulle at home)
• ribbon

Instructions –

Carefully cut in-between each vertical seam and remove the centre sections of paper. Then reinforce the seams by running a long strip of tape along both the inside and outside of each seam. *as pictured below

We also cut the bottom of a small plastic container to make a plastic dish for the base, we taped this to the bottom inside wire of the lantern frame. You can then place some florist foam into that container to stick fresh flowers and twigs into…you can also use some twist ties to attach extra materials to the inside frame.

Once the plants were secure we placed our Chrysalis inside. Then wrapped the lantern with the tulle, securing the top/opening with some ribbon.

We hung our Butterfly House in Miss 6’s bedroom next to our Handmade Tulle Pom Poms  (safely away from Master 2 who would love to play ball with the lantern).

We were woken early one morning to Miss 6’s excited screams “IT’S A BUTTERFLY, AMAZING, MUM COME QUICK!!”. We were all amazed and delighted to find a beautiful butterfly had emerged from the Chrysalis! We carefully moved the enclosure to hang in our living room so we could admire the butterfly all day.

Miss 6 was then equally thrilled to release the butterfly back into our garden that afternoon.

The empty house still looks beautiful hanging in her room, Miss 6 has been busy looking for a new Chrysalis to call it home.

You might also like to attract more Butterflies to your garden by making this great Butterfly Feeder!

Louise x

You might also enjoy these fun DIY Projects –

How to Make a Tulle Pom Pom 

DIY Sand Footprint Keepsake 

Beautiful Hair Clip Holder 

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