DIY Vintage Butterfly Botanical Wall Art: A Beautiful and Budget-Friendly Project

Are you looking to add a touch of vintage charm and natural beauty to your home decor? Look no further than this easy and affordable DIY project! Today, I’ll show you how to transform simple oval wood plaques into stunning vintage butterfly botanical wall art. This project is perfect for adding a unique, personalized touch to your walls on a budget!

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Materials You’ll Need

• 5 x7 Unfinished Wood Plaques
• Butterfly Botanical Printables
• Burlap Printer Sheets
• Black Paint
• Rub & Buff- Gold Leaf
• Mod Podge

I’ve designed a set of 5×7 oval-shaped printables to use for this project. Today I am going to use burlap printer sheets to get a vintage look for my set of plaques.

Regular cardstock printer sheets can be used, the prints have an aged look to them anyway.

Step-by-Step Instructions

There aren’t too many steps to making these butterfly plaques. First, you will need to paint the unfinished wood plaques. While the paint is drying print out the set of butterfly botanicals. Once the paint is dry cut and glue the oval prints to the frames.

Paint Your Plaques

Since I am going to for a vintage vibe with this wall art project I gave the unfinished wood plaques a coat of black satin acrylic craft paint.

Preparing the Butterfly Prints: Print & Cut Out

I’ve created a set of 2 butterfly botanicals printables sized for 5×7 oval plaques. Print them out of regular-sized printer sheets: either burlap sheets or cardstock printer paper depending on the look you are going for.

Once you have your sheets printed out you will need to trim off the excess and create the oval shape.

To do this I used the wood plaque as my template. I put the wood plaque over the print and used a pen to outline it.

Then I used the outline as my guide to cut the ovals. They will be slightly too large if you use a beveled-style plaque like I am, but we will tackle that later in the project.

Apply Mod Podge & Adhere Images

To attach the printouts to the plaques use Mod Podge. Simply brush the Mod Podge over the surface of the plaque.

Take your time and line up the butterfly print over the frame, make sure to keep it straight.

Gently press the print onto the plaque and use your hand to smooth it out. Make sure there aren’t any air bubbles.

If you have a beveled frame like the one that I am using here you will notice that the print is slightly too big for the smaller beveled section of the plaque.

To fix this take a pair of sharp scissors and using the edge of the bevel as your guide carefully trim off the excess. I held my scissors at a slight angle to get as close as possible.

It’s not hard to do so don’t worry! I’m notorious for cutting things crooked because I’m left-handed and mine came out great.

If you are using cardstock printables or paper at this point I would brush the entire print with a coat of Mod Podge for a decoupage look. Since these prints are fabric I won’t do that.

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Final Touch: Gold Accent

For the final step, to give these frames a truly vintage feel I grabbed a tube of gold leaf Rub & Buff. Seriously, this stuff is a miracle worker for a DIYer!!

I dabbed a small fine-point paintbrush into the Rub & Buff and brushed it along the raised edge of the plaque. Then went back with a soft paper towel and smudged it to spread it out a little bit.

Finished Butterfly Wall Art

There are a couple of ways to hang your wall art. They are light so a Command strip would work or attach a saw tooth picture hanger to the top center of each plaque.

If you are using saw tooth hangers make sure to measure and attach it in the same spot of both frames for even hanging.

For a sweet little touch, I made small velvet bows to place on top of each plaque. Hobby Lobby has the best frayed edge velvet trim that is so cheap! It’s under $3 when it’s on sale.

The butterfly botanical plaques are perfect for Spring but the style will work for year-round decor too.

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